Incredible comeback drive nets new top-ten finish for VeeKay
With a fantastic race at the Road America circuit, Rinus ‘VeeKay’ van Kalmthout has secured his fifth top-ten finish from nine NTT IndyCar Series races, as the 24-year-old Dutchman capped off a clever fuel strategy with an impressive tenth-place finish.
With 17 races on the calendar, the ninth race marked the halfway point of the 2025 IndyCar season. The beautiful Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin — nicknamed America’s National Park of Speed — hosted the ninth race, the XPEL Grand Prix: a 55-lap event on hot summer tarmac. VeeKay, a big fan of the circuit, was eager to race at Road America after achieving several strong results there.
However, he had to work hard during qualifying. The pace of his #18 askROI.com Dale Coyne Racing Honda was not quick enough to secure him a place among the top twelve, so the Dutch race winner had to settle for 22nd place on the grid. Nevertheless, a successful warm-up session boosted his confidence. By recording the seventh fastest time in the final practice session, VeeKay dared to hope for a good result.
After a flying start — P22 had become P17 after a few laps — he was suddenly reprimanded by the race officials. They had noticed that he had started a little too soon at a restart, so he was ordered to let all the cars behind him pass. Dale Coyne Racing thought they had found a loophole by bringing VeeKay in for a pitstop at the same time, but the officials were not fooled, so the Dutchman had to come in a lap later to serve a drive-through penalty.
Despite this setback, VeeKay kept his cool and delivered a memorable performance. He overtook competitors left and right, but was also hit by an opponent, causing him to lose positions yet again. Later, VeeKay was asked by the race officials to give up a spot, after which he once again needed to work his way past a number of rivals. Numerous competitors spun and crashed – no fewer than five caution periods marred the race – but VeeKay kept his car in one piece.
When the dust had settled, he found himself in tenth place, with just a handful of the scheduled 55 laps still to go. After a pit stop on lap 40, it was calculated that the Dutch DCR driver would just miss out on the chequered flag. However, the calculation failed to take into account VeeKay’s clever fuel-saving technique, as he coasted in on the last fuel vapours to cross the finish line before he immediately parked his blue and white car at pitlane exit, as a result securing tenth place. During his final stint, VeeKay managed to overtake successful IndyCar drivers such as Pato O'Ward, Colton Herta, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power.
This is VeeKay’s fifth top-ten finish in nine races, which is a remarkable achievement for a Dale Coyne Racing driver, given that the team has struggled to break out of the back of the field in recent years. Following fourth place at Barber, seventh place at Gateway, and two ninth places at St. Pete and the Indy GP, VeeKay can now add a tenth place to his tally.
“Another top-ten finish,” VeeKay rejoiced from Wisconsin. “The fifth in nine races. I’m satisfied because this was a crazy race. I got caught up in the action early on and incurred a number of penalties. We decided to go in early for the first pitstop, and that turned out to be the right strategy.”
“Towards the end of the race, I had great pace. Despite having to save fuel quite rigorously, I was able to overtake several rivals and pull away from the rest. That’s obviously really good and a real confidence boost. While things didn’t go well in qualifying, the #18 askROI.com Dale Coyne Racing Honda performed exceptionally well in the race. I want to thank Honda for their power source because it made executing this fuel strategy perfectly possible.”
“To be honest, I would have liked to have finished higher than tenth place. But when you consider where we started (P22), and everything that happened during the race – I was pushed off the track once, which cost me about five places – it was a good weekend overall. The first half of the season is over, and we have five races in July. We are feeling very confident, and I am really looking forward to it," VeeKay concluded.
The next race of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series will be held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, on the first weekend of July. The Honda Indy 200 starts on Sunday 6 July at around 7.20pm Dutch time and can be watched live on Ziggo Sport.
