LEXINGTON, Ohio — As Rinus VeeKay exited his pit stall late in Sunday’s (July 5) Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, his chances of scoring his first podium finish of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season disappeared.
Kyle Kirkwood jumped the Dutch racer in the Lap 63 pit stop sequence as Kirkwood’s No. 27 Andretti Global crew pulled off a faster stop, putting the Florida native slightly in front of VeeKay.
Try as he might, VeeKay was unable to get around Kirkwood, finishing .5466 seconds behind third place finisher Kirkwood and 2.7929 seconds behind race winner Pato O’Ward.
“You can only do so much in a race, and when you get jumped on a pit stop, It is what it is,” VeeKay said. “You know, everybody does their ultimate best, the whole team does, and they’ve been on it with pit stops all year.
“I think they just have to put a little bit less fuel in at the end, and that’s how the job does. So, no hard feelings. I feel like we maximized what we had today. Of course the podium would have felt quite a bit better, but you know, it’s tough.
“I’ll probably be pissed on the car ride home, but for now I’m happy that we had such a successful road course race here in Mid-Ohio after all the struggles we had on the previous tracks.”
VeeKay qualified sixth in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet but got around Will Power and Christian Rasmussen to move up to fourth-place before the first corner.
VeeKay started on Firestone’s red sidewall alternate compound tires that degrade faster but provide more grip. Like the other drivers who started on the alternate compound that must be used for a minimum of two laps on road courses, VeeKay pitted early on lap 10. After the first pit stop sequence ended 17 laps later when the primary compound starters pitted, VeeKay was back in fourth-place.
“It’s fun and a quick car. We really nailed the car this weekend, so it was, it was fun to be quick,” VeeKay said.”
“I was pretty good […] and really working the pit cycles there, so it was a good plan to to start on the reds and and get them off as soon as the window opened. I think that was a good call. That was our plan and yeah, Team Juncos Hollinger Racing did a great job.”
On the race’s 36th lap, VeeKay pitted for the second time but was able to jump David Malukas in the pit sequence as the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet fell from third to fifth-place.
VeeKay ran in third-place for 12 laps before pitting for the final time, but traffic and a dicey pair of teammates battling for the lead were immediately in front of VeeKay, providing a glimmer of hope.
As Dennis Hauger was fighting to stay on the lead lap in hopes of a full course yellow that never came, that delayed O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard enough to bring VeeKay and even Kirkwood into the vicinity of the fight for the lead.
Tension was high among the lead pair. O’Ward passed Lundgaard after the Danish racer ran wide at the Keyhole, allowing O’Ward to close and complete the pass at the following right-hander. The Mexican racer was looking for his first podium finish of the season while it is looking more and more likely that Lundgaard will be out of a ride at Arrow McLaren by seasons’ end.
All of this kept VeeKay close, but Kirkwood’s elapsed pit road time for his final stop was .7187 seconds faster than VeeKay’s, putting VeeKay back to fourth-place where he would remain for the rest of the 90-lap race.
While VeeKay was happy with his result, team co-owner Ricardo Juncos was even happier. VeeKay ran with Juncos’s operation in the junior categories, winning the 2018 Pro Mazda (now USF Pro 2000) title and finishing second in the 2019 Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) titles for Juncos’s team.
“I thought we had the podium,” Juncos said. “I think it’s a great team effort, super happy for the whole team. This weekend went, it went really good. We [had] a good [race] at Gateway as well, and I think it’s, it’s coming together, right?Â
“We got the podium in ’24 [at Milwaukee], and it’s been a long time that we, I think we deserve it. Now we’re getting very close and this is a big, huge team effort. Obviously very happy, very pleased with Rinus, which is one of my guys for many, many years. So really, really happy for how […] the second half of the year is going.”
VeeKay had finished fourth for the team at World Wide Technology Raceway back in June and is currently 11th in IndyCar points, three points behind Marcus Ericsson in the standings.
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.
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