‘My season can get started now’ - Abel

Sometimes drivers and race engineers form strong and successful bonds, and sometimes they don’t.

Dale Coyne Racing rookie Jacob Abel, who finished second in last year’s Indy NXT championship on the strength of three wins and 10 podiums, and veteran IndyCar/sports car engineer John Dick gave everything they had to make the No. 51 Honda competitive over the six opening races, but their efforts went unrewarded.

Holding 27th and last in the championship prior to the Indianapolis 500, Abel was the only driver to fail to qualify for the race, bumped by Coyne teammate Rinus VeeKay who took the 33rd and final position on the grid. The failure was the final straw for the team, and in response, Abel will have another IndyCar veteran – Mike Colliver who engineered his car at the Indy GP when Dick had a scheduling conflict – to look after the No. 51 for the rest of the season.

This weekend’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix counts as the seventh race of the season, but for Abel, it feels like the first, a much needed do-over where he hopes show more of the speed that was evident in NXT.

More IndyCar

IndyCar Officiating flags push-to-pass glitch at Long Beach

Indy 500 entry list gets to 32 with Abel

Palou credits pit crew for putting Long Beach victory within reach

“It's exactly how I feel about the whole entire situation,” Abel told RACER. “I literally texted a buddy of mine, like, ‘OK, my IndyCar season can finally get started now.’ Indy was really tough for both of us, but I think it was a little bit of what we needed to get kicked in the butt so that we can make a lot of changes and move forward. Dale's really realized that and he doesn't like it, just like the rest of us, and has really been motivated to turn things around.”

The 24-year-old from Kentucky also expressed his appreciation for Dick.

“I'm very appreciative for everything that John Dick and (now-former DCR engineer) Ed Nathman did for us over the past few months,” Abel said. “I think we had some issues, and I think they extended beyond just those two guys. But they have loads of experience and it was really, really good to be able to pull from that early on in my career and learn some things that a lot of drivers don't even get to learn from people who have that much experience. So that was awesome.”

Nathman was replaced by the returning Michael Cannon who will engineer VeeKay’s No. 18 Honda.

“It’s the dawn of a new age at Dale Coyne Racing,” Abel said. “I think the month of May did not go how either cars would have liked. I think they all realized that no one wants to be fighting for the last grid spot in the Indianapolis 500, the biggest race of the year. That is what led to basically a wholesale change in everything. It extends beyond just a couple of engineers. We're hopefully going to be providing more resources in a number of different departments that'll help us move forward and be more consistent, and hopefully, ultimately succeed.”