ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The last driver announced to a ride for the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season picked up Dale Coyne Racing’s (DCR) first top 10 finish since 2023 in Sunday’s (March 2) Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Rinus VeeKay started 12th in the No. 18 DCR Honda and moved up to 11th at the start of the race. VeeKay’s move around Nolan Siegel before the field got to the first turn enabled the Dutch racer to avoid the third-turn collision between Siegel and two-time St. Petersburg winner Will Power that eliminated both from the competition.
As the race ran under full course yellow, VeeKay and all the other drivers who started on Firestone’s alternate compound tire pitted early to satisfy the two-lap minimum stint required by the rules for the alternate compound that provides more grip at the cost of reduced tire life.
VeeKay ran in 15th for most of his next stint before pitting at the end of lap 34. After setting the race’s second-fastest lap on the fastest lap chart on lap 37, VeeKay found himself in 16th after the first green flag pit stop sequence ended.
Several drivers ran their second stint of the race on the alternate tires and had to pit very early on that strategy. Those drivers pitting allowed VeeKay to jump from 16th to 10th as their stints lasted barely longer than a dozen laps.
The 2018 USF Pro 2000 Champion ran 10th for several laps before leapfrogging Callum Ilott, who was one of the final cars to run the Firestone alternate compound tires in the race.
VeeKay continued on in ninth-place, finishing nearly 39 seconds behind race winner Alex Palou and a little over three seconds ahead of Alexander Rossi in 10th place.
“I think we had a good race,” VeeKay said. “We didn’t take too much risk, I think we had a good strategy. Great job by the team, everything came together driver-wise but also engineering-wise very close to the season start and yeah, I mean we just had a great race. Pace was good, tire degradation was a little bit too much for us but still we had a great race and very happy with what we’ve done.”
DCR’s struggles in 2024 have been well documented. After a year with nearly all brand new people with no finishes better than a trio of 13ths, VeeKay brought DCR their first top 10 since David Malukas‘ eighth place finish at Portland in 2023.
VeeKay’s result gave team owner Dale Coyne plenty of reasons to smile. The pair first worked together at last October’s postseason hybrid test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the team announced VeeKay’s signing just over two weeks before the season started.
“We’re happy with our drivers, happy with our engineers, the team guys, everybody,” Coyne said. “So this is good to come out like this, qualify top 12, finish top 10. Couldn’t ask for anything more for now.
“Well… now we’ve got to get a top-five, then we’ve got to get a podium and then see what happens after that!”
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.