VeeKay shines with fifth at Iowa Speedway
Rinus 'VeeKay' van Kalmthout made his presence felt at Iowa Speedway, as the 23-year-old Dutchman raced to a stunning fifth place in the tenth round of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series, the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 at Iowa Speedway.
In his early IndyCar years, VeeKay stringing together top-ten finishes with the occasional podium appearance was a sure thing. In more recent times, however, finding his feet as an Ed Carpenter Racing driver between the leading IndyCar teams that have only grown in strength ever since has not been easy. While the 2023 season proved challenging, the Dutch IndyCar race winner suffered more mechanical problems in the 2024 season than he would have liked.
On Saturday night at Iowa Speedway, however, VeeKay was finally allowed to compete with those leading teams again. The youngster who is known for his ability on short ovals such as the one near Newton, Iowa, sprinted towards the front from 13th on the grid, as a string of clean pit stops helped VeeKay continue his rise through the field.
While IndyCar and motorsport fans might have described the Iowa event as dull – with only two lead changes in the 250-lap race, one at the start and the other in the pitlane during a caution period – VeeKay had no problems with the race. After a series of unfortunate results beyond his control, the Dutch ECR driver was pleased to cross the finish line with a good result.
In excellent form, VeeKay showed his racing ability with a number of excellent passes, including a well-aimed move to outrun Marcus Armstrong on the restart after one of the cautions. VeeKay’s team mate and team boss, Ed Carpenter, who is driving the #20 car on the ovals, started from the back of the grid and failed to make it to the finish as he was knocked out by a rival.
“That was a good race,” said VeeKay from Iowa. “It may not have looked like much from the outside, but secretly it was exactly what we needed after the recent setbacks. I wanted to stay out of trouble today and keep the tyres good. I managed to do that. I would like to thank the crew of the Ed Carpenter Racing askROI.com #21 Chevrolet for their good pit stops. They combined with the good restarts to get me to the front.”
“This was the first race of 2024 where everything went well. I am obviously very happy with that. Also, this is a double-header weekend and we have another race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. After the first race, the drivers and teams that struggled at the beginning will obviously have a better idea of the strategy to follow, but on the other hand I think we can continue our strong performance.”
“The aim is to have a similar race in the second race on Sunday. Once again 250 laps will be completed and once again I will start from midfield. This good result gives me a lot of encouragement and I am ready for race two,” said a relieved and determined VeeKay.
The second race of the double-header weekend in Iowa, the Hy-Vee One Step 250, gets underway tonight (Sunday 14 July) at 18:30 Dutch time and can be followed live on Ziggo Sport, with VeeKay starting from 15th on the grid.