Veach keeps nose clean in IndyCar debut

Zach Veach's long-awaited Verizon IndyCar Series debut had some positives, even if it didn't show in the final results.

It was announced on Tuesday that Veach would step into the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy to replace JR Hildebrand, who is recovering from surgery to repair a broken bone in his hand from a late-race run-in with Mikhail Aleshin at Long Beach. The 22-year-old worked his way up the field – gaining five spots through the first 20 laps and reaching the top five during a round of pits stops by lap 23 – before being assessed a drive-through penalty for work while the pits were closed on lap 69. He wound up 19th.

"Overall, I'm pretty happy with our first Verizon IndyCar Series weekend." Veach said. "For what it was coming in here on short notice and a limited amount of time to get familiar with the car, I'm really happy with the progress that we made. I couldn't have done it without the help of JR Hildebrand and the entire crew at Ed Carpenter Racing. Everyone here was so open to helping get me up to speed."

The two biggest challenges for Veach – who has a pole, one win and two additional podium finishes at Barber in Indy Lights – were race stamina and pit stops.

"This was the longest race I've ever done in my life and part of that was learning how to save fuel and doing my first real race pit stops," he added. "Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it went. Granted, I think we would have loved to have a little more speed, but with the amount of time I had in the car, to come home where we did I think says a lot."