Sometimes a race car driver needs a reset and a change of scenery. Myles Rowe believes he falls in that category.
Rowe moved from HMD Motorsports to Abel Motorsports for the 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone season. In his first outing with his new team, Rowe was quickest among 22 drivers in last month’s Chris Griffis Memorial Test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course driving the No. 99 ABEL Motorsports with Force Indy entry.
“Just affirmation,” Rowe said of the strong run. “Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. I don't think it's like one team doing something worse or one team doing something better. I love HMD. It’s just a different machine.”
The Georgia native finished 11th as a rookie in the series standings in a season highlighted by seven top-10 finishes and two top-five results. He limped to the finish line with one top-10 finish in the final seven races after securing six in the first seven races.
Being fastest in the opening test session of the 2025 season gives Rowe confidence for a big season ahead.
“Taking it step by step,” Rowe said. “I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. We’re on the right path. We’re getting somewhere.”
The last three INDY NXT by Firestone champions -- Linus Lundqvist (2022), Christian Rasmussen (2023) and Louis Foster (2024) -- were sophomores in the series when they won the title. That’s a trend Rowe hopes continues.
“You have a whole year's worth of experience compared to none at this point,” he said of his current comfort level in the series. “So, you have all these different things you know you need to work on, you know you need to improve on, streamline different work compared to last year. It's just about feeling it out and then going from there and working off very little knowledge.
“Now it's just about making sure you execute, whether it's executing the warm-up (practices), the practice sessions, long runs, short runs. It's about getting those things cleaned up so you can start very comfortable sort of a thing. It's just about enhancing your knowledge, instead of applying new knowledge.”
Abel Motorsports placed two drivers in the top 10 of the INDY NXT by Firestone standings in 2024, with Jacob Abel second and Yuven Sundaramoorthy eighth. Abel also won three races.
"Our goal year in and year out is to put the most competitive program we can on track, and Myles will be a huge piece of that puzzle in 2025,” team manager John Brunner said. “2024 really showed what this organization is capable of, but we are always striving for more. Myles will bring a new perspective to the team, and I think pairing him with our staff and with Yuven will make us that much more competitive in 2025.”
Rowe's journey to INDY NXT has been filled with trophies, but none more important than his USF Pro 2000 championship in 2023 when he became the first African American driver to win a North American open-wheel championship.
Rowe will continue his climb toward the NTT INDYCAR SERIES with the continued support from Penske Entertainment's Race for Equality & Change initiative. Established in October 2020, Force Indy is a change agent in the motorsports industry.
The foundation of Force Indy is an alliance with NXG Youth Motorsports founder Rod Reid and Roger Penske, owner of one of the most successful racing organizations in history. Their leadership brings years of experience from grassroots racing to the professional INDYCAR level.
Force Indy’s priority is in finding skilled and talented individuals and mentoring them for success at the highest level. Its vision is to see motorsports grow ethnically and across gender.