Rinus “VeeKay” van Kalmthout made a big impression on Sunday evening (local time) during the ninth race of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. The 25-year-old Dutch driver charged from 13th on the grid to a fantastic fourth-place finish at the World Wide Technology Raceway.
“I’m incredibly proud of the entire Juncos Hollinger Racing crew.”
Rinus ‘Veekay’ van Kalmthout – IndyCar driver at Juncos Hollinger Racing
The short oval at Gateway—the track that is officially located in Madison, Illinois, but is marketed as being in St. Louis, Missouri (the city across the Mississippi River)—is one of Rinus VeeKay’s favorites. Already at his IndyCar debut in 2020, the Dutchman scored two top-ten finishes—a fourth and a sixth place—in what was then a doubleheader. In subsequent races, he added two more to that tally.
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500, as the event at Gateway is known, got off to a rocky start this year. During free practice, VeeKay had a minor incident in Turn 3, causing the rear of his #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing car to hit the wall. The Dutch driver bounced back well with a 13th-place finish in qualifying.
In the 260-lap race (the “500” refers to the number of kilometers to be driven), VeeKay steadily worked his way forward. The top ten was quickly in sight, and throughout the entire race, the green-and-white Juncos Hollinger Racing car was a fixture in the front pack. Everyone’s biggest competitor wasn’t another driver in a different car, but the weather gods. Rain kept everyone at Gateway on edge the entire time.
Prior to the race, it was decided to start 15 minutes early because the rain radar was showing threatening conditions. Both rain-induced neutralizations during the race resulted in a red flag, with the second interruption in particular lasting quite a while. The fact that the race was halted twice due to rainfall did not throw VeeKay and his team members off their game: in the pit lane, JHR once again proved to be one of the fastest.
A number of poorly timed neutralizations set VeeKay back, but after the final restart, he found himself in fourth place. He held that position to the finish line. This marks VeeKay’s best result of the season and his third top-ten finish, following a sixth-place finish at the Indianapolis 500 and a ninth-place finish at the season opener in St. Petersburg. After several strong results, VeeKay finds himself in thirteenth place in the standings halfway through the season: with 175 points to his name, the top ten of the standings is firmly within reach.
“A really good race,” VeeKay exclaims from Gateway. “The car felt great, despite a difficult start to the weekend with the crash in the first free practice session. During qualifying, we were right in the middle of the 25-car field in thirteenth place, but I knew we’d have a good race car.”
“We made a big push forward during the race, though track position was everything after the final restart. That meant no one at the front could really attack each other for position anymore: we crossed the finish line in the exact same order we started the restart. We were very close to a podium finish, but in the end we just didn’t have enough grip to actually make a move for P3.”
“It was a tight weekend, with very tight pit stops; we beat quite a few top teams and their drivers during this race, so I’m incredibly proud of the entire Juncos Hollinger Racing crew. The second half of the season is coming up, and we can build on results like these,” VeeKay concludes with determination.
Rinus VeeKay and his IndyCar colleagues will get a brief break after an intensive schedule. The next race won’t take place for another two weeks: the XPEL Grand Prix of Road America, which kicks off on Sunday, June 21, at around 8:20 p.m. Dutch time and can, of course, be watched live on Ziggo Sport.
