Coyne confident of retaining VeeKay for 2026

Dale Coyne is interested in continuing with Rinus VeeKay. VeeKay is interested in continuing with Coyne. Now the two need to come to an agreement to keep the Dutchman in the No. 18 Honda and maintain their amazing form that has Dale Coyne Racing chasing its first top 10 finish in the IndyCar Series championship since 2018, when Sebastien Bourdais placed seventh in the standings.

The 24-year-old sits 12th in the championship entering the last two races and is just 15 points shy of cracking the top 10 as the series heads to Milwaukee and Nashville to wrap August and close the season. VeeKay’s drawn interest from other teams as well, but none rank higher than the No. 18 entry engineered by Michael Cannon, which is why both sides want to keep a good thing going.

“I think it will,” Coyne told RACER when asked if there was a plan to continue with VeeKay. “Like I’ve been saying, I don’t think we’re going to see many changes next year. We just saw (Marcus) Armstrong’s going to continue with Meyer Shank, so he’s staying put. I think you'll know our two drivers long before Halloween.”

In a call with RACER, VeeKay’s manager Adrian Sussman echoed Coyne’s sentiments and said he hopes to see a contract extension finalized in the coming weeks. For Coyne, there’s clear potential for the team with VeeKay leading the charge.

“I think from a competitive standpoint, everybody's fighting for their place in the championship, so while the championship is over, I think there's even more drama in the next two races because guys are fighting to get in the top five, fighting in the top 10, fighting in the top 12,” Coyne said.

“Everybody's looking to increase their stock by finishing higher in the championships. When we're high up the sheets, it's where we should be. When we're down the sheets, it's because we had some kind of an issue. Either he got knocked around or something stupid happened. But overall, the potential to be up higher is much better, much stronger.”

VeeKay was the last driver signed at the onset of the 2025 season and met his original race engineer Ed Nathman just prior to the opening race at St. Petersburg. They found an immediate rhythm and placed ninth on debut. VeeKay improved to take fourth at Barber and another ninth on the Indy road course before running well at the Indy 500 until a crash intervened. Since the arrival of Cannon in June, the duo have produced top 10s in half of the races, including a season’s best of second at Toronto.