Rookie Rinus VeeKay was having an amazing debut Indianapolis 500, and looked to be one of the drivers in contention for the win until problems in the pits cost him dearly.
The 19-year-old Dutch driver qualified fourth, and was up near the front for the first third of the 200-lap race. His Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy was dialed in and he was able to keep pace with the fastest cars on track.
Then a small error while coming in for a pit stop, compounded by a stop-and-go penalty for hitting his crew members, cost the young rookie his chance to fight for the win.
“We were running third,” said VeeKay. “The team was doing an amazing job. The second pit stop, I came into the box and just hit the brakes a little too hard. I locked up my inside front, and my biggest nightmare happened. I hit the crew guys.
“They work day and night for me, so I feel terrible. I will make sure to apologize to everyone.
“I made one mistake, but it was a big one. Pit stops are something I’m not as familiar with yet, but that’s not an excuse.”
Even after dropping two laps down from the penalty, VeeKay was able to mix it up with the rest of the field.
He was able to recover one of his laps and ended the day in 20th, but was disappointed that his mistake left him in the lower half of the field.
“We had a great car. It got better and better, and I was able to pass cars on the inside and the outside.
“I learned a lot, but not fully in a good way. I just want to thank the team for giving me such an amazing car, but I threw the race away.”
VeeKay has shown that he has plenty of speed behind the wheel and has been up near the front multiple times in the first half of the season, but has made a few costly ‘rookie mistakes’ that have left him down in 18th in the points standings.
