VeeKay wows with Mid-Ohio form for JHR

That was Rinus VeeKay in the unheralded No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy fending off Alex Palou and chasing Kyle Kirkwood to the finish line at Mid-Ohio where the Dutchman earned the team’s best-ever result on a road course and matched his run to fourth in June on the World Wide Technology Raceway oval.

VeeKay, in his debut season for one of IndyCar’s smallest teams, also captured its best-ever finish at the Indianapolis 500 where he drove the No. 76 Chevy to sixth, and with three top six results since May 24, he’s risen to 11th in the standings, which stands as another all-time best for the team.

Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 was a celebration of Pato O’Ward’s excellence in leading Arrow McLaren to its first 1-2 finish in IndyCar ahead of teammate Christian Lundgaard who earned pole position, and Andretti Global’s Kirkwood put in a stellar effort to propel himself from 10th to third. But given the disparity in resources between JHR and the teams in its orbit on Sunday, it’s hard to argue that any driver was more impressive at Mid-Ohio than VeeKay in a car that ran for the second consecutive race without a primary sponsor.

“The crew did a great job,” VeeKay said. “We made a good strategy plan beforehand. We knew the red tires were gonna be hard to hold on to. It was overcast to start the race, so we decided to start on those reds, get some spots at the start, which I did. That was good. And then once the three-stop window opened, we ditched them and went for clean track on the blacks, so really good pit cycles there. Really good pit stops by the crew.”

Kirkwood’s No. 27 Andretti team helped him to gain a position on the final stop which relegated VeeKay to fourth.

“Unfortunately, we got beat on the final one,” VeeKay said. “But today we showed – the fairly small team that we are – that once we run up front, we can run with the big guys.”

Thanks to his consistent string of performances in recent months, VeeKay is within three points of cracking the top 10 and needs six points to overtake Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in ninth.