Note: This concludes a series of 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES team previews on INDYCAR.com. The season starts Sunday, March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding (noon ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Starting Lineup: Rinus VeeKay (No. 18 askROI Honda), Jacob Abel (No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda).
2024 in Review: Nine drivers raced for the team, including Nolan Siegel, who made appearances in both the No. 18 and the No. 51 Honda-powered entries. In the No. 18, Jack Harvey had the most starts, with 14. The car also was driven by rookie Hunter McElrea (in the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto), Conor Daly (a late fill-in for Harvey after a crash in the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart at Iowa Speedway) and Siegel (the $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach). Siegel failed to qualify the car for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge after incurring two accidents. Harvey has the best result, a 13th-place finish in the season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway. Six drivers worked through the No. 51 entry, with Katherine Legge driving most often (seven times). Legge led two laps and finished 15th in the second Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250. A pair of series newcomers combined to make seven starts in the No. 51 car: Luca Ghiotto competed in four races, Toby Sowery three. Veteran sports car driver Colin Braun competed in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding and at The Thermal Club. Tristan Vautier returned to the series to drive the No. 51 in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. Sowery gave the No. 51 its best result of the season, a 13th-place finish in The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the 2025 Civic Hybrid. VeeKay completed his fifth and final season at Ed Carpenter Racing. His season was highlighted by advancing to the second round of “500” qualifying, finishing with the seventh starting position. VeeKay led the race for the fourth consecutive year and finished ninth with eight laps led. His other standout weekend was at Iowa, where he finished fifth and ninth. Abel competed in INDY NXT by Firestone, winning three races and finishing second in the standings for his family-owned ABEL Motorsports.
New for ’25: It’s an all-new pairing for Dale Coyne’s organization with the addition of VeeKay, a veteran with one career series victory, and Abel, who won three races last season in INDY NXT by Firestone. VeeKay gives the organization a series race winner for the first time since Takuma Sato in 2022 and Sebastien Bourdais in 2019.
Keep an Eye on This: Abel and fellow series rookie Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had quite the battle the past two seasons in INDY NXT by Firestone, combining to win 11 of the 14 races in 2024 and finishing 1-2 in the standings. This year, they, along with PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman, will compete for this series’ Rookie of the Year Award.
Little-Known Fact: Dale Coyne has employed five drivers who either had been an INDYCAR SERIES champion or would become one. That list features Paul Tracy, Buddy Lazier, Cristiano da Matta, Sebastien Bourdais and, most recently, Alex Palou. Other drivers who won series races and at some point drove for Coyne include Robbie Buhl, Michel Jourdain Jr., Alex Barron, Oriol Servia, Roberto Moreno, Mario Dominguez, Bruno Junqueira, Justin Wilson, Tomas Scheckter, Mike Conway and Carlos Huertas. VeeKay and Abel will become the seventh and eighth drivers in the field for this weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding to have driven for Coyne. The others are Palou, Siegel, Conor Daly, Santino Ferrucci, David Malukas and Sting Ray Robb. In 2020, the DCR lineup featured Palou and Ferrucci. Coyne’s team has six career series race wins. Bourdais won St. Petersburg in 2017 and 2018.