Veach closing in on Indy 500 drive

Indy Lights race winner Zach Veach could be close to landing a drive for the Indianapolis 500. The Ohio product took three wins last year driving for Belardi Racing, impressed the Ed Carpenter Racing team during his IndyCar testing debut at Sonoma Raceway (pictured below), and has continued to pursue avenues that would lead to making his first start in the series.

The 22-year-old's name has been mentioned as an Indy 500 option for Andretti Autosport, ECR and AJ Foyt Racing, and while he wouldn't be drawn on his likely destination, the Mazda Road to Indy graduate was confident a deal will be in place before the month of May arrives.

"Team prospects are high; we're speaking with a couple of great organizations and I'm positive something good will happen," Veach told RACER. "It always comes down to funding, and we've been working on putting the sponsors together for quite some time to bring everything together to do the Indy 500. We're constantly beating on doors to make progress."

Veach says he'll remain patient while putting the final pieces together that will be needed to confirm his place on the Indy 500 entry list.

"With the way things are going right now, the deadline to lock everything down is the beginning of May," he said. "Our focus right now is to get into the 101st Indy 500, and we're not ruling out some one-offs.

"I want to be in the Verizon IndyCar Series full-time, and the best way to get there is to be on the track showing the teams what you can do. I'm not going to get hired by just talking about it; making it happen by getting in a car to race is the first step of many steps in how the process works."

Planning to break into IndyCar at its biggest race is a daunting task for any driver, and with that firmly in mind, Veach has focused his efforts on opportunities with teams that will expedite his learning process.

"With everything we're trying to do, I think there's going to be a lot of experience around me with the teams I'm talking to," he said. "Being successful as a rookie is so much about who you're working with – the mechanics, the engineers, your teammates. I want to be smart about it and put myself in a position where I can listen and learn from all of them. We're going to do everything in our power to start off on the right foot."