VeeKay and Juncos Hollinger encouraged by best-ever Indy performance

Rinus VeeKay has built a reputation as one of the finer oval drivers in the IndyCar Series, and with his latest performance at the Indianapolis 500, the Dutchman moved the bar higher for himself and the Juncos Hollinger Racing team he joined during the offseason.

It began by qualifying 11th, which ranked as the best to date for the team owned by Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger, and ended with VeeKay and the No. 76 Chevy crossing the finish line in sixth, a personal best and the top Indy 500 result for the team since its debut in 2017.

A race strategy play early in the race sent the 25-year-old to the bottom of the field, and from there, the 500 became one long fight for JHR’s leader where strategy was used to overcome the early setback.

“It was a roller coaster,” VeeKay told RACER. “We did not take the first yellow and in the end, not the right decision. So we went from 11 to 28th or 27th. We tried something different. We had another 450 miles to go, so we went for it. We set in there and created strategy, created opportunity, saving fuel, and could shave off one pit stop at the end.

“So just a really good day, really good restart at the end, went from ninth to fifth. Fortunately, without the tires to move forward, [Team Penske’s Scott] McLaughlin rolled the outside, but really, really happy. It's a month-long effort from those guys here behind me, and it's not done alone at all.”

VeeKay opened the season with a run to ninth at St. Petersburg, dealt with adversity or unremarkable results leading into the 500, and got the program back on track with his charge to sixth.

“Little team, big heart, that's for sure,” he said of JHR. “And how we were fighting with the big guys. Yeah, we really raced our own race, and I think that really matters. We've got the strategists, we've got the engineers, we've got the mechanics at pit lane, so yeah, we made it work out there. Takes a lot of fuel [economy], all the stuff Chevy gives us really helped us with that, to take off one pit stop and be able to fight at the front, and we need a bit of luck there at the end, so the yellows really helped us, but yeah, incredible race. I'm very happy, maybe the second happiest guy out there today.”