Bill Abel is working on an ambitious plan to add a full-time NTT IndyCar Series program alongside his burgeoning Indy NXT effort.
The Kentucky-based construction company owner made his first foray into IndyCar team ownership last year at the Indianapolis 500 in partnership with Neil and RC Enerson, and plans to return in May for Abel Motorsports’ second adventure at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a new chassis he’s due to receive from Dallara in the coming weeks.
The investment in a Dallara DW12 and more of the equipment needed to compete at every round is part of Abel’s bigger plans, which involve becoming IndyCar’s newest full-season entrant in 2025.
“There’s a lot of stuff, a lot of moving parts, a lot of things that we’re talking about and trying to figure out how to make that step,” Abel told RACER. “A lot is going to happen between now and next year. Chevy has been really good to us. They’ve been in our corner. Hopefully they will be there with us in ’25 when we try to go do a full season. That’s not confirmed yet but that’s the direction we’re heading and that’s the momentum that we’ve got behind this now. So that makes the most sense.”
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Making use of the DW12 owned by the Enersons, Abel Motorsports starred on its Indy 500 debut as RC Enerson qualified and locked the team into the starting field on the first day of time trials. Having a chassis owned by Abel in the team’s Indiana-based shop was an important move to help ensure the squad is capable of racing in IndyCar without any limitations.
Although nothing is signed with the Enersons, it’s possible for them to continue with Abel in May — utilizing their chassis again — and it was when Abel was looking to field a second car at Indy where the wire transfer to Dallara was made.
“That’s really when we decided to make the jump to order our car,” Abel said. “We’re going to try to do it the right way. We can’t afford to fund this entire program ourselves, so we’re going to be reaching out to different people, trying to figure out how to make it happen. We’re investing a lot already. Buying cars and equipment — we bought a timing stand from McLaren — and trailers and things like that is one thing, but securing a budget to run the whole season is a whole different animal, and we are definitely going to have to have some help there.
“But everybody that we’ve been dealing with within the paddock has been really, really good to deal with, and our plan is to be there full-time with at least one entry, maybe two — if that’s by finding a funded driver, that would be terrific. That’s one way to do it and we would certainly be open to that. We’re looking for those opportunities.”
Having invested in a car and all of the complementary items it takes to drive around the country and run an IndyCar program, Abel has also done some additional hiring, done under the direction of team manager John Brunner, who will take a great role on the emerging IndyCar side of the operation and gradually train one of the current staff members to manage the NXT operation.
“We’ve actually hired a couple more folks this year with specific IndyCar backgrounds and experience,” Abel noted. “One or two of the guys were on our 500 effort last year, and we were able to get them on board full-time.
“We talked about bringing somebody on board that can maybe head up just the Indy 500 program for us, and so John’s been looking hard for that person. He talked to somebody at one of the other teams who said, ‘You’re the guy that needs to run that program, and bring somebody else up within the organization to head up the NXT team.’ He came back to me and said, ‘You know, I think this is what we need to do.’ And, of course, I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds very smart to me.’ That’s something we’ll transition into this year. John will be able to focus more on our IndyCar program.”
In the short term, Abel has his expanding NXT team in motion and an Indy 500 effort to finalize. Beyond that, he’s trying to ready the company for a bigger role in IndyCar in 12 months’ time.
“We’ve had a few conversations this year with folks about the 500,” he said. “Right now, we’re leaning towards RC. And we’re trying to position ourselves keep our ear to the ground and understand the process of a new team like us trying to get into IndyCar with the talks about charters happening.
“We’ve been told there will be a space there for us to race; we don’t want to buy a brand-new car or two and not have a place to take it and race it and we feel pretty good about that. IndyCar seems excited about the prospect of having us. So we’re just trying to put things together to make that happen.”