Petersburg season-opener after a compromised strategy salvaged sixth place and showed just how far he’s come. He’s not allowing that to happen this year. Compared with fellow young stars Alex Palou, Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward, VeeKay seemed like an also-ran. He finished outside the top 15 in the last seven races, never bettering his run to 16th on his Mid-Ohio comeback. He insisted he hadn’t returned to action before his injury had a chance to properly heal, yet it seemed as if VeeKay wasn’t quite the driver he was. VeeKay also made a small but significant misjudgment in the race at Gateway, causing a three-car accident. ![]() He qualified 11th on his return at Mid-Ohio, but thereafter team-mate Conor Daly had the edge in terms of one-lap pace. VeeKay fell off his bicycle while training and broke his collarbone, forcing him to miss the Road America round. ![]() However, after Detroit, everything went wrong. VeeKay broke his duck on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2021 before his season was thrown into disarray by injury He instead finished eighth and scored 56 points – more than you get for victory in a ‘regular’ Ind圜ar race. But so too did the fact that he showed restraint in his second Indy 500.Īfter becoming the youngest ever front-row starter and leading over 30 laps, VeeKay was doubtless frustrated at falling out of contention on race day, but he didn’t hurl it at the wall trying to attain the unattainable. His first victory, on the IMS road course (clearly a happy hunting ground for both he and ECR), and the aforementioned second place in Detroit, played a large part in VeeKay lying fifth in the championship at the halfway point of the 16-race season. In 2021, VeeKay took the next step – the realisation that consistency is vital in a series as closely fought as Ind圜ar. And on returning to the IMS road course for the Harvest Grand Prix, he took pole and finished third. He charged into sixth and fourth in the two races on Gateway’s 1.25-mile oval. At the Indianapolis 500, he qualified fourth. In only his second Ind圜ar start, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, he finished fifth. Should a team fail to hit the sweet spot throughout the reduced two-day events, they were in danger of suffering two kidney punches: to make up a 14-race season, five of Ind圜ar’s race weekends that year were double-headers.ĭespite this exceedingly difficult environment, VeeKay’s latent promise was obvious. Testing was virtually non-existent and practice time was pinched. Of course, there is always a major learning curve in Ind圜ar for even the most talented rookie, and in a 2020 season lacerated by the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, ECR found it tough to find track time for its new star. ![]() The Ed Carpenter Racing boss had spied a similarly promising talent to that of 2011 Lights champion Josef Newgarden, the now double Ind圜ar champion scoring three wins and an outsider for the 2016 title with ECR. Ultimately, he came up just short against the rapid Askew, but did enough to convince Ed Carpenter of his talents. The Dutchman was the same way in Indy Lights in 2019, wringing dry his Juncos Racing car in order to bridge its slight performance deficit to the Andretti Autosport entry of Oliver Askew. However, serious he is in debriefs, out on track he just seems to be having fun, revelling in his own talent, knowing he’s one of the best at what he does. ![]() Known Stateside as 'VeeKay', he exudes exuberance in an Ind圜ar, whether he’s on a flying lap or in the middle of a duel.
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