After enduring a tough rookie Indy NXT season in 2024, Myles Rowe had a 2025 season to remember, netting his first two wins – both on ovals – and five podium finishes. Feeder Series caught up with the Abel Motorsports with Force Indy driver during the Milwaukee round to discuss how his year went.

By Vincent van der Hoek

At the start of this season, Rowe was hoping to be in the mix for the championship in IndyCar’s second tier. The 2023 USF Pro 2000 champion entered his second season in the series having switched to Abel Motorsports, filling the void left behind by 2024 runner-up Jacob Abel. Changes to the tyres in Indy NXT, however, put the Speedway-based team on the back foot, Rowe explained.

 “Entering the season, the championship was what we were looking for, especially after what Jacob was able to do last year, but there were significant differences in the tyres in how they developed from last year to this year that changed how we approached the weekend and how the cars came out of the box,” Rowe said.

“It’s been a big development with the balance of the car. There has been a lot of in-depth technical analysis with the engineers to make sure the cars were still quick, because what was working the last couple years with Jacob was not working this year. There were a lot of days where we were scratching our heads – more so at road courses than on the ovals.”

The biggest difference for Rowe compared with last year is his consistency. In 2024, he took two top-five finishes but ended up outside the top 10 seven times. In 2025, he finished in the top five in 10 out of 14 races and only once missed out on the top 10. Still, with Andretti Global rookie Dennis Hauger dominating the early part of the season, a true title bid never really took shape.

“It wasn’t like we were that far off, but we weren’t getting race wins,” he said. “That’s really the key. A lot of P4s, a lot of P3s and P2s, so it’s really not being on the top that led to the championship to slowly trickle away.”

Track time, or lack thereof, is a big challenge for all teams in Indy NXT, in particular for smaller teams such as Abel Motorsports. On most weekends, Indy NXT has two practice sessions just like other feeder series around the world, but on the ovals, drivers get only one 45-minute practice session to get dialled in before they hit the track for qualifying.

On those more compact weekends, the 25-year-old shone, especially in comparison to last season. In 2024, when he raced with HMD Motorsports, Rowe’s best oval finish was 14th. This season alone, his worst result on an oval was sixth place at Milwaukee, while he won at both Iowa and Nashville, two of the other three ovals on the schedule. 

“I have always been a good oval driver,” he said. “You saw that in USF2000, USF Pro 2000 – good positions, strong finishes. Not to beat on the team I was with last year, we definitely struggled last year on ovals as a team with HMD. So me just trying to get more out of it than I could, I think, was happening last year.

“This year, I don’t have to try to get more out of it. When you do that on an oval, you saw what happened last year. It doesn’t really always play into your favour.”

Rowe now feels more at home as the lead driver for Abel Motorsports. In the overall standings, he jumped from 11th in 2024 to fourth in 2025, just eight points off third-placed Lochie Hughes. 

“Abel Motorsports with Force Indy gave me the car [that] I can drive to the limit and not have to try to drive it over the limit just to get into the top 10. That’s really the key,” he said. “I don’t think anything has really changed in my driving. I think I have been driving the same on ovals. Obviously experience helps, but I’ve been doing the same thing.”

Last month, the team announced that Rowe would stay with them for the 2026 Indy NXT season. The Georgia native is clear in his ambition. 

“I know I can win the Indy NXT championship, and that’s what I’d like to do before I go to IndyCar,” he said.

Since 2021, Rowe has been a prospect of Force Indy, a programme founded in 2020 by entrepreneur Rod Reid and IndyCar owner Roger Penske with the aim of unearthing and developing Black American talent in racing. In his debut USF2000 season in 2021 – which came after two years on the sidelines because of budget limitations – Rowe went on to become the first Black driver to win a race in an IndyCar-sanctioned series.

“It’s done wonders for me,” Rowe said. “The goal is to have a black driver and a multicultural, diverse team in the Indy 500, whenever we can make that happen.

“It started with me in USF2000. Then we let Ernie Francis lead that a little bit, trying to skip a step and get there a little faster. That didn’t quite work as well, so now we’re back on my program. Hopefully in the next year or two, we can get to the Indy 500 and make that happen.

“Where younger drivers fall into that, I don’t know yet. I think that’s a bit further into the future than I can say, and that’s more up to the speedway, Roger Penske and Force Indy. The goal, I think, is to have a platform where we can see younger drivers coming in. Obviously it’s not going to be 50 to 100 people. But if we can get another driver, two, three, and give them chances in the lower series to show their strengths, I think that is the very end goal of the program.

“Right now, the main goal is getting to the 500,” Rowe added. “I’m happy to be still running. A lot of people thought it would be done and not running right now.”

Though most of his life is focused on racing, Rowe keeps up with his creative pursuits as well, such as photography and more recently writing.

“It’s a huge outlet for me, I don’t do my photography as much because I like to focus a lot on subjects, fashion photography being a big inspiration for me. So that’s going to die down, I feel, trying to focus on really honing in on Abel. 

“But I’ve actually taken up writing very intensively. Short-form is something I always have done, but long-form is something I’ve taken up near the end of last year, pursuing books and things like that, so that’s what I’ve been doing.

“That means when I’m at home, when I’m not thinking about racing, and I’m just going to find something else to do, that’s literally what I’m doing. I’m either editing what I’ve already written or I’m writing a new clause, or I’m brainstorming and things like that. Hopefully not in too long, you guys will see some books from me soon.”

Header photo credit: Matt Fraver / Penske Entertainment