2020 NTT IndyCar series rookie Rinus VeeKay had an incredible bounce-back this weekend at the year’s first visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, piloting his #21 ECR Chevrolet to an impressive fifth place finish.
Last month in his debut IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway, VeeKay had a day to forget. After crashing his car early on in practice and missing qualifying altogether while the team repaired his broken car, the young Dutch driver crashed again in the race and ended his day all the way back in 22nd position.
A subsequent poor qualifying effort for the GMR Grand Prix did not give much hope of a major improvement, but heady driving and a quick car led to a top-five finish and one of the biggest improvements on the day.
“Amazing race! I’m super happy,” said an ecstatic VeeKay after the race. “I drove the best race of my whole career!”
“The team just gave me a great car, great strategy to go from P18 to P5. I drove my butt off! I have never been this tired after a race, but that’s what you get when you give 110 percent.
“Thank you to my guys and everyone at SONAX and Autogeek. The team gave me an amazing car, and I’m to the moon. I’m the happiest guy on earth right now!”
VeeKay’s two crashes at Texas Motor Speedway led to team owner Ed Carpenter, who was also competing as a driver at the 1.5-mile oval, saying at the time, “Everything I told Rinus to do, he didn’t really do, which was being patient, be careful.
“We’ve got a little work to do there on the sponginess of him, but he can drive the car.”
The subsequent words of advice from the IndyCar mainstay appear to have resonated with the young rookie based on his strong performance this past weekend.
The top-five finish puts the 2019 Indy Lights runner-up at the top of this year’s Rookie of the Year standings, 11 points ahead of Arrow McLaren SP driver Oliver Askew who had a crash of his own this weekend while running near the front.
VeeKay will look to carry his newfound momentum into the double header races at Road America next weekend, a track at which he claimed victory last year while working towards his promotion to the top series.
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