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IndyCar

VeeKay takes maiden IndyCar win, Grosjean second from pole

by Jack Benyon
9 min read

until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

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.

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.

May 14 : Romain Grosjean on his IndyCar progress

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.

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.

2021 Indianapolis 500 Pace Car

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.

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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.

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
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