Rinus VeeKay earned his first IndyCar victory with a brilliant strategic performance in tandem with his Ed Carpenter Racing team, while Romain Grosjean scored his best IndyCar result so far in second at Indianapolis.
A start crash that robbed Conor Daly as he was clipped into the grass from a sixth-place start, didn’t hinder Dale Coyne Racing’s Grosjean. He’d been concerned about the restarts but the start and restart were brilliant and he drove over four seconds into the distance.
Here. We. Go.
The green flag is out for the GMR Grand Prix.
📺: @NBC
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Grosjean was in the driving seat after the first round of stops, as he went 12 laps longer than his rivals opening up strategy options with fuel later in the race.
However, just before the second stop he bumped wheels lapping Takuma Sato at Turn 1, and then Sato fired back passing Grosjean at Turn 7. That cost Grosjean time and VeeKay – who started on the hard tyre and ditched those in a short stint – engaged in one of his now customary undercuts that jumped him into the lead at a track where he scored his first pole and podium last year.
He also produced one of the moments of the race as he slipstreamed Alex Palou – who was passing Jimmie Johnson – and went down the middle of the two cars into Turn 7 diving around the outside of Palou to take the position, which proved crucial.
REPLAY: @rinusveekay threads the needle.
📺: @NBC
📲: INDYCAR Mobile – https://t.co/vyuISIgHnX#INDYCAR // #INDYGP pic.twitter.com/dOOIGeFgtM— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 15, 2021
VeeKay pitted three laps before Grosjean for the last stint and came out 4.5 seconds ahead, and drove off into the distance as Grosjean got caught behind Sebastien Bourdais. Once he’d cleared him he brought the gap down to 4.9s.
The 20-year-old VeeKay becomes the sixth-youngest series winner and the fifth different victor in as many races in the 2021 IndyCar season.
It was Ed Carpenter Racing’s first victory since 2016 with Josef Newgarden at Iowa. It was its first on a road course since Mike Conway in 2014 at Toronto.
Grosjean was second – still his best IndyCar result – following his maiden pole on Saturday at what still felt like a breakthrough race, where he also confirmed he is looking for houses in the US seemingly paving the way for a permanent IndyCar switch.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Palou mirrored Grosjean staying out late in the first round of stops, and unlike his rivals appeared to favour the black, harder tyres. This was because of a pre-race concern about pace on the used softer tyre, but admitted using the harder tyre less would have produced a shorter race time even if it wouldn’t change any positions.
Palou held off Penske’s Josef Newgarden who struggled for pace compared to his rivals mid-race although he exclusively used scrubbed tyres until the last stint when he tried and failed to reel Palou in.
Graham Rahal rounded out the top five with arguably the drive of the race. He pitted twice under the early caution – in a move he described as “stupid” on the radio, but it opened up a massive middle stint two-stop strategy that sent him from the back of the field all the way up the order.
Simon Pagenaud chased down Rahal but the latter had plenty of push to pass available and just held off the Penske driver.
Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi’s resoluteness cannot be questioned as he has endured a tough start to the season but overcame a tricky 14th-place starting spot and an apparent engine issue where the car wasn’t pulling to its maximum to hold off rookie Scott McLaughlin for seventh.
Penske’s McLaughlin made his first ‘Fast Six’ in qualifying and took eighth, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing pair Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson.
Dixon stopped under the first caution and converted his 16th-place start into ninth at the finish, maintaining his championship lead in the process although Palou bit into it heavily.
Ericsson was in the wars with Colton Herta late on but avoided any penalty as Herta went onto the grass and fell to 13th.
REPLAY: Contact with @Ericsson_Marcus sends @ColtonHerta into the grass.
📺: @NBC
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It was a tough weekend for Arrow McLaren SP, as second in the championship heading into this weekend, Pato O’Ward, was 15th having qualified 18th. Felix Rosenqvist was 17th and Juan Pablo Montoya 21st in his first IndyCar race since 2017 as he has an eye on the Indianapolis 500.
Jimmie Johnson returned after missing the ovals of Texas last time out, and was 24th gradually lowering his lap time through the race.
For the second weekend in a row, Jack Harvey was robbed of a strong result.
The Meyer Shank Racing driver appeared to stall on the second round of pitstops, having been Grosjean’s closest rival early on and comfortably second.
However, after that stall which dropped him a few positions, he immediately had a flat right tyre sending him back to the pits and then two laps down.
Race Results
Pos | Name | Team | Car | Laps | Laps Led | Total Time | Fastest Lap | Pitstops | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 85 | 33 | 1h47m08.577s | 1m10.876s | 3 | 51 |
2 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 44 | +4.951s | 1m10.916s | 3 | 44 |
3 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 1 | +15.072s | 1m11.076s | 3 | 36 |
4 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 85 | 0 | +18.447s | 1m11.36s | 3 | 32 |
5 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 0 | +26.981s | 1m11.917s | 4 | 30 |
6 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 85 | 0 | +27.87s | 1m11.786s | 3 | 28 |
7 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 0 | +33.27s | 1m11.715s | 3 | 26 |
8 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 85 | 0 | +36.186s | 1m11.713s | 3 | 24 |
9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 3 | +36.836s | 1m11.709s | 4 | 23 |
10 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 0 | +37.197s | 1m11.514s | 3 | 20 |
11 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 85 | 0 | +39.802s | 1m11.496s | 3 | 19 |
12 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 4 | +40.389s | 1m11.754s | 3 | 19 |
13 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 0 | +43.115s | 1m11.609s | 3 | 17 |
14 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 0 | +43.811s | 1m11.758s | 3 | 16 |
15 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 85 | 0 | +44.545s | 1m11.824s | 4 | 15 |
16 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 0 | +44.997s | 1m11.754s | 3 | 14 |
17 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 85 | 0 | +45.421s | 1m11.548s | 3 | 13 |
18 | James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 85 | 0 | +1m05.199s | 1m11.871s | 3 | 12 |
19 | Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 84 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m11.906s | 4 | 11 |
20 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 84 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m11.833s | 3 | 10 |
21 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 84 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m12.241s | 3 | 9 |
22 | Charlie Kimball | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 84 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m12.151s | 3 | 8 |
23 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 84 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m11.348s | 5 | 7 |
24 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 84 | 0 | +1 lap | 1m12.597s | 3 | 6 |
Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 50 | 0 | DNF | 1m11.294s | 4 | 5 |
Driver Standings
Pos | Driver | Team | Points | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | R13 | R14 | R15 | R16 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 549 | 53 | 14 | 33 | 27 | 36 | 85 | 15 | 35 | 51 | 35 | 26 | 5 | 10 | 52 | 40 | 32 |
2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 511 | 7 | 40 | 28 | 41 | 32 | 36 | 20 | 44 | 13 | 54 | 20 | 25 | 53 | 30 | 26 | 42 |
3 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 487 | 34 | 11 | 35 | 51 | 15 | 65 | 37 | 51 | 22 | 24 | 17 | 32 | 41 | 17 | 30 | 5 |
4 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 481 | 35 | 30 | 53 | 35 | 23 | 36 | 25 | 26 | 33 | 32 | 40 | 13 | 11 | 36 | 17 | 36 |
5 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 455 | 8 | 54 | 8 | 30 | 17 | 37 | 16 | 32 | 40 | 18 | 15 | 36 | 13 | 24 | 54 | 53 |
6 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 435 | 24 | 26 | 11 | 18 | 20 | 39 | 51 | 22 | 28 | 41 | 51 | 22 | 22 | 27 | 28 | 5 |
7 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 389 | 26 | 15 | 30 | 36 | 30 | 11 | 31 | 30 | 19 | 28 | 30 | 26 | 7 | 23 | 32 | 15 |
8 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 383 | 18 | 36 | 20 | 28 | 28 | 71 | 18 | 24 | 12 | 16 | 9 | 15 | 25 | 9 | 24 | 30 |
9 | Will Power | Team Penske | 357 | 41 | 24 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 10 | 13 | 28 | 35 | 5 | 16 | 53 | 37 | 17 | 5 | 20 |
10 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 332 | 22 | 9 | 24 | 10 | 26 | 10 | 27 | 17 | 26 | 30 | 13 | 32 | 13 | 40 | 5 | 28 |
11 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 324 | 17 | 28 | 22 | 17 | 14 | 33 | 32 | 18 | 25 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 28 | 18 | 5 | 22 |
12 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | 308 | 29 | 22 | 10 | 23 | 51 | 56 | 40 | 12 | 0 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 12 | 5 |
13 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 308 | 19 | 32 | 26 | 13 | 7 | 24 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 15 | 28 | 20 | 33 | 15 | 27 |
14 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 305 | 16 | 19 | 40 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 11 | 10 | 16 | 18 | 8 | 7 | 32 | 23 | 18 | 19 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 272 | 20 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 30 | 26 | 15 | 40 | 16 | 8 | 36 | 6 |
16 | Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 258 | 31 | 20 | 6 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 19 | 14 | 14 | 19 | 5 | 15 | 31 | 12 | 16 | 24 |
17 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 256 | 6 | 16 | 14 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 9 | 19 | 17 | 6 | 32 | 12 | 26 | 15 | 19 | 7 |
18 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 235 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 37 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 15 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 14 | 14 | 9 |
19 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan | 233 | 15 | 10 | 18 | 8 | 16 | 10 | 23 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 28 | 16 | 6 | 20 | 20 | 18 |
20 | James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | 220 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 35 | 8 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 16 |
21 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 205 | 9 | 18 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 24 | 17 | 14 | 28 | 11 | 17 |
22 | Hélio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 158 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 103 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 11 |
23 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 148 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 11 |
24 | Santino Ferrucci | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 146 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 28 | 20 | 0 | 22 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
25 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 134 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 21 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 15 |
26 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 108 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 13 | 13 |
27 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 107 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 20 | 0 | 66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
28 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 96 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 15 | 0 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
29 | Oliver Askew | Arrow McLaren SP, Ed Carpenter Racing | 61 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 22 | 9 |
30 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Arrow McLaren SP | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
30 | Sage Karam | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
32 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 34 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
33 | J. R. Hildebrand | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
34 | Cody Ware | Daley Coyne Racing with RWR | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
35 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta-Haupert w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
36 | Charlie Kimball | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
37 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
38 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
39 | Stefan Wilson | Andretti Autosport | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
39 | Ryan Norman | Dale Coyne Racing with RWR | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
39 | Simona De Silvestro | Paretta Autosport | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
42 | Kevin Magnussen | Arrow McLaren SP | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
43 | RC Enerson | Top Gun Racing | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |