“Now it’s time for the May race, the most important month of the whole year.”
Rinus ‘Veekay’ van Kalmthout – IndyCar driver at Ed Carpenter Racing
Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama, and Rinus VeeKay have been a great combination for years. The 23-year-old Dutchman fought his way from last place in 2021 due to chaos on the opening lap to a stunning sixth place, to train pole position in 2022 and cross the finish line third. After a hopeful start to 2024, with VeeKay eventually finishing eighth after the Penske’s disqualification in St. Petersburg, he and employer Ed Carpenter Racing were aiming for a strong result in Alabama.
With a lightning-fast practice lap on Saturday morning, VeeKay set the tone: the young Dutchman ran the fastest time on the hard tire, which gave both the driver of the #21 Chevrolet and his teammates great confidence. Unfortunately for VeeKay, the excellent training form was not converted into a nice starting position: the single IndyCar race winner was plagued by a mechanical problem during qualifying, which prevented him from setting a competitive time and forced him to settle for 27th and last place.
Starting from the very backfield, VeeKay cut through the opening laps of the 90-lap Indy Grand Prix in Alabama like a warm knife through butter. After five laps, the born Hoofddorper had already overtaken nine competitors to find himself back in eighteenth place. However, a collision with one of his opponents at the start was penalized by race control, forcing VeeKay to pay a drive-through penalty.
Despite that mishap, VeeKay did not let himself off the hook. Two excellent stints on the soft tire put the ECR driver in a position to compete for top ten finishes – VeeKay even briefly drove in seventh place. Rag-fine overtaking moves on Josef Newgarden and Romain Grosjean made the fans and spectators roar, and gave VeeKay the suspicion that a nice result was still in the cards despite all the setbacks.
Counting on his sheer speed, VeeKay delivered one of his very best IndyCar races to date. The youngster easily kept up with the pace exhibited up front and was fast on his way to his second top-ten finish in three races. Linus Lundqvist, the driver who eventually finished third, was unable to match the speed of his Dutch opponent from the halfway point of the race.
However, a misjudged strategic choice called a halt to VeeKay’s advance. Along with opponent Newgarden, the Dutchman was called in for a short pit stop so as not to run out of fuel in the final stint. It caused the twenty-something so much loss of track position, however, that despite a late neutralization and a subsequent restart, he could reach no further than seventeenth place – still ten spots improvement over his starting position, but certainly no reflection of the speed on display. VeeKay finished just twelve seconds from winner Scott McLaughlin (Penske).
“A spirited race,” VeeKay let it be known from Birmingham. “I advanced from the very last place, P27, to seventh. Then we made the wrong choice as a team to come in for a splash-and-dash. That simply cost too much track position. A finish among the top seven was certainly a possibility and it could have been much more, seeing that Lundqvist finished third.”
“A very nice weekend was in the air after I drove the fastest time in Saturday morning practice,” VeeKay continued, “but unfortunately it was not to be. We were unlucky in qualifying and despite a fantastic race pace we leave Alabama somewhat disappointed. Still, we should be proud of the way we fought back. This offers a lot of hope for the upcoming races, as we have shown we can compete with the guys at the front.”
“Now it’s time for the May race, the most important month of the whole year. We are running two races, one of which is the famous Indianapolis 500. I really can’t wait to get behind the wheel again and want to continue the great qualifying results of previous years into an unforgettable final result,” the young Dutchman concludes combatively.
After the back-to-back races in Long Beach and at Barber Motorsports Park, VeeKay and consorts will get a week’s rest before the battle resumes. Next Saturday, May 11, the Sonsio Grand Prix is scheduled to be held on the Road Course of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 108th edition of the Indianapolis 500 will be held Sunday, May 26.
