By Patrick Stephan

On a beautiful summer evening in the middle of Iowa, Jacob Abel took his first career INDY NXT by Firestone pole position with a 162.244 miles per hour run over two laps on the 7/8ths mile Iowa Speedway oval.

Going out 12th of the 16 drivers, Abel watched from pit lane at Louis Foster, Hunter McElrea, Christian Rasmussen, and Nolan Siegel all took their shots at his pole winning run.

“Qualifying has definitely been a little bit of our Achilles heel this year,” Abel said. “So, to pull this out is unbelievable, especially on an oval. That’s like the most stressful thing you can do as a driver ever. Especially going fifth to last (in the order).

“I had a lot of people to watch, so when I got out of the car, I wasn’t necessarily done. Huge shoutout to the Abel Motorsports guys. This is a huge step for us. We’re right there in the championship. We just need a good couple of weekends, and we’ll be right there.”

Going out second, Christian Bogle held the top spot until James Roe – number 9 in line bumped his HMD Motorsports teammate to 2nd. Bogle would eventually wind up 7th, and Roe 4th as the later.

Veteran Matthew Brabham, a late substitute in the Juncos Racing #75, wound up 11th. Brabham said of his run, “I think it was alright.” He then explained he got just 20 laps in practice with an engine issue, and he actually didn’t even know he would be driving this car until a couple days ago.

Brabham was testing an LMP2 car in Spain when he got the call to jump on a flight to Chicago and then Indianapolis. He got a partial night’s sleep before leaving at 4am for Iowa Speedway. His father, his soon to be father in law and fiance handled the driving so Matthew could sleep on the drive from Indy.

The INDY NXT by Firestone 75 lap race will run tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 10:10am, so that’s after NTT INDYCAR Series qualifying and just before the Carrie Underwood concert.

HY-VEE INDYCAR RACE WEEKEND – Saturday, July 22

8:00AM – 7:00PM Public Gates Open — Parking lots open at 6 a.m.
8:30AM – 9:30AM Qualifying for both the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart and the Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade (Lap 1 = Race 1, Lap 2 = Race 2)
10:10AM – INDY NXT by Firestone Race
11:50AM – Pre-Race Concert feat. Carrie Underwood
2:00PM – Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart NTT INDYCAR SERIES
4:30PM – Post-Race Concert feat. Kenny Chesney

INDY NXT by Firestone Qualifying Results:

Rank	Car #	Driver	LAP 1 TIME	LAP 2 TIME	TOTAL TIME	AVG SPEED
1	51	Jacob Abel	19.8405	19.833	00:39.6735	162.244
2	6	Christian Rasmussen	19.9257	19.9228	00:39.8485	161.532
3	39	Nolan Siegel	19.9928	19.944	00:39.9368	161.175
4	29	James Roe	19.9861	19.9524	00:39.9385	161.168
5	27	Hunter McElrea	20.0508	20.0259	00:40.0767	160.612
6	26	Louis Foster	20.0511	20.0765	00:40.1276	160.408
7	7	Christian Bogle	20.1192	20.1455	00:40.2647	159.862
8	21	Kyffin Simpson	20.1934	20.0856	00:40.2790	159.805
9	68	Danial Frost	20.14	20.1602	00:40.3002	159.721
10	76	Rasmus Lindh	20.164	20.1399	00:40.3039	159.707
11	75	Matthew Brabham	20.2021	20.1026	00:40.3047	159.703
12	99	Ernie Francis Jr.	20.1469	20.1621	00:40.3090	159.686
13	28	Jamie Chadwick	20.242	20.2216	00:40.4636	159.076
14	14	Josh Pierson	20.3217	20.1605	00:40.4822	159.003
15	10	Reece Gold	20.4275	20.2247	00:40.6522	158.338
16	98	Jagger Jones	20.4585	20.3476	00:40.8061	157.741