Indy 500 predictions, Penske vs Ganassi, and more: Indy NXT's Yuven Sundaramoorthy answers burning IndyCar questions

Indy NXT star Yuven Sundaramoorthy recently sat down with Sportskeeda for an in-depth interview about his journey. In addition to divulging details about his rollercoaster journey through the IndyCar ladder, the Indian-American driver also gave his views on today's IndyCar landscape.

From his prediction for the 109th Indy 500 on May 25 to the trio of rookies racing in the series this year, the former ABEL Motorsports driver touched upon a variety of topics.

(Note: Yuven Sundaramoorthy made his Indy 500 predictions before IndyCar's prized Month of May began. His views don't take into account the recent Team Penske controversy and the qualifying results.)

IndyCar's rookie class of 2025 and the three-way battle between Jacob Abel, Louis Foster, and Robert Shwartzman

Yash: How do you feel about your former Indy NXT teammate Jacob Abel's promotion to IndyCar?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "I'm super happy for him. That's the dream, right? It's finally getting to the goal and I think he's doing a great job so far. No, really happy for him, and I'm hoping he can keep improving. Obviously, it's a long learning curve 'coz it's a much faster car than what we've been driving (in Indy NXT)."

Jacob Abel at Indy 500 Open Testing - Indianapolis - Source: Getty

Yash: There are three rookies in IndyCar this year - Louis Foster, Jacob Abel, and Robert Shwartzman. Who do you think comes out on top at the end of the year?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "Louis has already done an incredible job, figured out the car very fast. Obviously, he's a great driver and I've gotten the opportunity to race with him for a number of years now. He's figured that out really well. I think PREMA's got way faster than most people thought they would be immediately, right? Straight out of the box. Obviously, great team, a lot of history there. They've done really well. And then Jacob's gonna figure it out, obviously. He's with one of the smaller teams, right? It's a lot more difficult for them to... you know they have less data. I think that all will come together well and obviously, they have the help of ABEL Motorsports in the background. So that will hopefully help out. But I think Louis will be hard to beat this year."

Yash: Who from the Indy NXT class of 2025 do you see getting promoted to IndyCar in 2026?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "Obviously, it's hard to say that Dennis won't keep doing well. He's an incredible driver. Probably could've gone straight to IndyCar with the amount of experience he has, but there were no seats available. It's a very stacked field (in Indy NXT) this year. All my teammates, Callum (Hedge), Myles (Rowe)... all four of them have the ability to win races this year and the problem right now is the issue that F1's had the last couple of years where there's a lot of people wanting the seats, but a not a lot of seats open. So that kind of makes it the difficult part."

Yuven Sundaramoorthy on the IndyCar-FOX deal and the series' livery problem

Yash: IndyCar is at a make-or-break point with FOX coming on board. What do you think the series can do to make a similar name as F1?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "I'm super happy with the FOX deal. I think everything's going really well. The marketing and everything like that is really well, which I think was the biggest issue in the past - the marketing hasn't been all there. So I'm really excited for what more FOX has and the 500 this year goes really well. And the biggest thing about IndyCar is people understand it as the 500. They don't understand the season. Once more people realize that, it'll hopefully pick up a little bit more. We've already seen over the last couple of years, the fanbase has grown pretty significantly in IndyCar and I'm really excited for that."

Yash: In F1, when you see a red car, you know it's a Ferrari. When you see a blue-ish one, you know it's Red Bull. Do you think that might be one of the problems IndyCar is facing, with drivers having different liveries for different races?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "Yeah, I definitely do. It's stuff that fans have said. It's so hard to keep up with it. But it also is one of the things about American racing, right? That's what NASCAR always was. You can come in with your big sponsors, your logo, and your livery and the whole thing. F1's issue, though, is it's so hard to tell the teammates apart, right? That is the one thing nice about the IndyCar series. If you do know who's running what livery, you can identify them pretty easily."

Yuven Sundaramoorthy makes his predictions for the 109th Indy 500

Yash: We won't hold you to your word, but can we have your predictions for the Indy 500?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "It's hard to bet against some people, right? Rinus (Veekay) has one of the better qualifying (record) in the history of the 500. Santino (Ferrucci) is obviously very good. You cannot rule out Josef or Pato. It's hopefully another battle between them at the top... that would be pretty cool. You know I'm a big underdog guy, so one of my buddies - if Louis (Foster) or Jacob (Abel), or Christian (Rasmussen) can figure it out, that would be pretty cool too."

Alex Palou's reign and Chip Ganassi Racing's rivalry against Team Penske

Alex Palou celebrates his Sonsio Grand Prix win on the podium - Source: Getty

Yash: Alex Palou is finding success relatively later than his teammate Scott Dixon did in IndyCar, but he's outperforming him right now. Who do you think is his closest challenger for the 2025 championship?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "Alex is one of the... it might be a bold claim, but he's one of the, if not the best, road course racers in the world. He's an incredible driver. He can go fast in anything he gets in. But on the ovals, Josef's gonna be hard to beat. All the Penske guys are gonna be hard to beat on the ovals. I think Scott McLaughlin's gonna be very, very close. On the road courses... it was so hard to predict what was gonna happen in St. Pete, it was everywhere. I think Scott Dixon, Will Power also... I mean, Penskes struggled a bit in St. Pete, which we're not used to seeing. If they figure their stuff out, it's gonna be a very close fight."

Yash: Do you find it surprising that Chip Ganassi Racing isn't as adept at winning on ovals compared to Team Penske?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "Obviously, they've (CGR) won their fair share of oval races in the past. It kind of comes in flows. Penske really struggled two or three years ago, and then either before or after they merged with Foyt, they improved that. They were unbeatable last year, right? So it comes in ebbs and flows. I'm just hoping that this year, it's a lot more competitive and we don't see Penske 1-2-3's all the time. It's nice when we can see competition and everyone has a chance."

Yash: CGR has a technical alliance with Meyer Shank Racing. Alexander Rossi recently criticized how CGR benefits from an extra testing day - CGR tests on one day, and MSR on the other. Do you think IndyCar should have some restrictions when it comes to such technical alliances?

Yuven Sundaramoorthy: "Obviously, they restricted team size with the charter system this year, right? So it's gonna come. I think it's nice because it allows more people to be competitive, the smaller teams. Obviously, Meyer Shank is a great team, and they've had great results even when they were by themselves. I think it's a plus. It keeps teams a little separate for fans so that they can still identify and have a team alliance and root for a team, but it keeps everyone a little bit more competitive, which I think is a good thing."