TORONTO — Rinus VeeKay drove his No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet to an eighth-place finish in Sunday’s (July 21) Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, his third top-10 result in the last three races.
VeeKay previously took a fifth-place finish at the first race of the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway before finishing ninth in the second 250-mile race of that weekend. Then, after a first-lap crash eliminated his teammate Christian Rasmussen, VeeKay quietly drove through a chaotic race to bring home his fifth top 10 of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season.
“It was a crazy race,” VeeKay told Frontstretch. “I didn’t know that that many people would get out of that one incident at turn 1. Anyway, I avoided most of the trouble. It’s very unfortunate for Christian of course, but it happens at this place; turn 1 is treacherous.”
Like it did in 2023, turn 1 of the temporary street circuit winding around Toronto’s Exhibition Place was quick to interrupt the action with a multi-car incident on the race’s opening lap. Along with Rasmussen, Santino Ferrucci sustained damage in the opening melee.
“We had a clean race,” VeeKay continued. “I’m happy with that. Really, it wasn’t that much passing. It’s quite hard to get by another car, but we made a few good passes, had some good runs. Toward the end we chose to go to new sticker [Firestone Alternate tires], which I think was a really good call.
“Unfortunately in the turn-5 stack-up, I damaged the front wing so I [fell] to the back a little bit but moved forward again so I’m pretty happy. It was a solid day. This is one of those days where you don’t really need to do much special and just finish and stay out of the problems, and that’s what we did.”
After sticking on fresh Firestone Alternate tires for his final stint, VeeKay went on a tear and passed four cars in the final five laps to come home in the top 10 after starting 22nd.
It’s fitting that the Dutchman referred to the race as both crazy and clean in a matter of seconds, as he had to narrowly avoid a massive crash which brought out the red flag with 12 laps remaining in order to complete the clean aspect of his day.
VeeKay barely scraped by a spinning Pato O’Ward before the Mexican driver was caught in the crossfire of a multi-car crash which sent both Pietro Fittipaldi and Ferrucci airborne.
At multiple times throughout the race, the commentary team made a point to mention the chaos which has erupted in turn 1, and VeeKay admits he can imagine a future with a reprofiled first turn, though it’s not atop his list of priorities.
“If they can add a little bit more space, because usually people get squeezed there, that’d be nice,” he pondered. “But, I feel like this is one of the better street courses we have, so [we’re] going to have to deal with it. It’s a lot race, you’ve got to be patient and I feel like if you have the right mentality in this race, you’ll get some great results.”
The finish is among multiple this year that have demonstrated VeeKay’s improvement over his performances in 2023. Toronto marks the 12th points-paying race of the 2024 season, and this result brings VeeKay’s average finish on the season to 15th, whereas after 12 races in 2023 he held an average result of 19th.
Looking forward to the end of the season, composed entirely of oval tracks with Portland International Raceway the only remaining road course on the calendar, VeeKay is optimistic.
“We had a good oval start,” he said. “We’ve actually had a top 10 at every oval this year, so far. I’m excited for all the ovals coming up. I’m actually very excited to get a few weeks off and get some time for me and my wife. But I think the second part of the season, the goal’s to get into the top 10. Of course, we’ve had a few back-to-back mechanical failures. That’s tough, that’s out of our control. Right now, my focus is to get results like this … I’m very happy. We’ve got the pace.”
Looking to the end of the season, VeeKay has not raced at the Milwaukee Mile or Nashville Superspeedway in IndyCar machinery, but has previously collected two top 10s (2020) at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and finished sixth at Portland in 2023.
About the author
Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.
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