Rinus VeeKay Wins his First Career Race at IMS

E1dBgzXXsAMLX5T — Photo by NTT IndyCar Series

The NTT IndyCar Series kicked off May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the GMR Grand Prix on the IMS road course. Former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean won the pole on Friday with Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden qualifying second.

It didn’t take long for the first caution to come out on the first lap. Everyone was scrambling for positions when there was contact between Conor Daly and Simon Pagenaud at turn one. Daly’s day ended early, and he finished in 25^th place.

The race restarted on the fourth lap. Grosjean led the opening 25 laps before making his first scheduled pit stop, then Alex Palou took over the lead. When the first scheduled cycles were complete, Grosjean resumed the lead.

It seems passing has become a thing in the past as there was hardly any passing in this race, except for Rinus VeeKay’s pass in the middle on lap 42. Jack Harvey went to pit road for his stop but was penalized for an improper pit exit and served a drive-through.

Grosjean came in for his second pit stop on lap 44, handing the lead to Ryan Hunter-Reay. Once the green flag cycles were complete, Rinus VeeKay was the new leader.

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VeeKay and Grosjean battled side by side for the lead before Veekay went to pit road on lap 60. On lap 62, Sebastien Bourdais was penalized for an improper pit exit and served a drive-through. With rain approaching the racetrack, more teams went to pit road for their third stop.

Rinus VeeKay regained the lead on lap 65 and didn’t look back. Late in the race, VeeKay’s crew chief was concerned about fuel and told VeeKay to slow down on the last lap. Then VeeKay’s crew chief told him he was good. He then stepped on the gas pedal and won his first career race by 4.9510 seconds over Romain Grosjean.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Alex Palou third, Josef Newgarden fourth, Graham Rahal fifth, Simon Pagenaud sixth, Alexander Rossi seventh, Scott McLaughlin eighth, Scott Dixon ninth, and Marcus Ericsson tenth. Romain Grosjean led 51 laps, the most in the race. There were eight lead changes and one caution for three laps.

The next race for the NTT IndyCar Series will the 105^th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 30^th, at 11 am on NBC.