Abel Motorsports has taken receipt of its brand-new Dallara DW12 chassis and is working overtime to assemble the car and prepare itself for making another run at the Indianapolis 500.
The car was only delivered on Friday, meaning that the Speedway, Indiana-based Indy NXT and IndyCar Series team won’t participate in this week’s two-day Indy 500 open test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but team owner Bill Abel says his John Brunner-led crew is diving headfirst into the project.
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“It’s in our shop and it is being sorted out and gone through by John,” Abel told RACER. “The process has started and we’re excited about that.”
With 34 teams and drivers locked in to try and qualify for the 33 available spots for the May 26 Indy 500, Abel’s squad, which bumped Graham Rahal from the field in 2023 with a car owned, supplied, and driven by RC Enerson, is also working to finalize the driver of its No. 50 Chevy when official practice for the 500 starts on May 14.
Enerson is in the frame again and is searching for sponsorship to clinch a deal with Abel, and other funded Indy 500 veterans including Charlie Kimball, Stefan Wilson, and Devlin DeFrancesco have been searching for opportunities to take part in the event.
“I think we’re getting closer,” Abel said. “I am having phone calls every day or every other day with different folks trying to put things together and get somebody in to fill the seat. I keep telling myself as I put my head on my pillow at night, that it’s going to be okay, we’re going to have somebody in that car and hopefully have another good run like we had last year. I just wish we had some clarity on who that would be.”
Having made commitments to Chevrolet and his crew to try and qualify for their second Indy 500, Abel says there are no questions of whether his team will be the 35th entry.
“It hasn’t crossed my mind that we wouldn’t do it,” he said. “We do have options on drivers, and we do have our car going together. We do have an engine from Chevrolet and we should have everything we need to be there. We’re just short on the driver right now. But not being there really hasn’t crossed my mind.”