How Juncos-bound VeeKay has proven himself as a leader in IndyCar
- Archie O’Reilly
- Oct 15
- 10 min read
Upon Rinus VeeKay being unveiled as a Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) driver for the 2026 IndyCar season, one phrase from the announcement stood out above all else…
Lead driver.
And that is perfectly emblematic of the value the Dutchman once again holds within the IndyCar world as he enters his seventh season in the series. His stock has risen dramatically across the past eight months.
Touted as a driver destined for a move to one of IndyCar’s powerhouses in his early twenties after a starring start to his career with Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR), VeeKay’s name had started to fade from those same conversations in recent years.
He burst onto the scene as a 19-year-old rookie in 2020, taking a pole and podium by season’s end, which he built on with a victory and runner-up finish the following season and a fourth podium in 2022. But while remaining consistently within the 12th-to-14th range in the championship, those highs latterly dissipated for an ECR team in a spot of some decline.
At the end of VeeKay’s contract after the 2024 season, despite a belief he may be re-signed, ties were cut between ECR and their longest-tenured driver after five years.
Not necessarily through the fault of VeeKay, things had turned a little stagnant. But his unceremonious September departure was not befitting of his service and came cruelly late in the IndyCar driver market. With lost seats filled, VeeKay was plunged into the wilderness of free agency, contemplating a world in which he may not race in 2025.
But enter Dale Coyne Racing (DCR): a team in need after a disastrous 2024, searching for a driver to propel them back to better times.
A relationship first seen on public display at an Indianapolis 500 hybrid test last October for a driverless DCR, VeeKay remained in contact with team owner Dale Coyne throughout the off-season. And in the weeks leading up to the St. Petersburg opener, it was finally announced that he would be joining the team on a full-time basis for the 2025 season.
Even if unideally late in the off-season, this was a driver in strife joining forces with a team in a rut, both saving one another in what transpired to be a perfect year-long combination.
“For me it was a great year - probably my best year in my IndyCar career,” VeeKay assessed in a media call on Tuesday. “[It gave] me the opportunity - I think the same the other way around: we needed to help each other. They came off a really rough season and for me, the position I was in, we really needed each other.
“What we’ve done together has been great. It’s been a lot of fun for me. I think I’ve driven the best season I could have, made minimal mistakes and really, really mastered the IndyCar race craft. It’s been really good.
“Whatever the future holds, definitely the upcoming season with Juncos Hollinger Racing, I will benefit from what I’ve learned at Dale Coyne Racing.”
Venturing to a different team for the first time in his IndyCar career, a tally of seven top-10 finishes levelled VeeKay’s career-best single-season total from his five years with ECR. A masterful drive in Toronto in July saw him return to the podium for the first time in three years, marking the DCR team’s first rostrum in a non-oval race since the 2021 season.
Most impressive, though, was the manner in which VeeKay orchestrated a seismic turnaround for a team which recorded a best race finish of 13th across the entire 2024 season en-route to their two cars finishing cut adrift of the rest of the field in entrant points.
With nine race results in 2025 which would have been DCR’s best the year prior, VeeKay split the two entries of his previous employers en-route to 14th in the standings. This marked the best championship finish of a DCR driver since Santino Ferrucci in 2020.
Where crisis had, for a while, reigned after his abrupt ECR exit, VeeKay stumbled upon something unquestionably majorly beneficial to his career.
“At the time I didn’t think so, but it was probably the best thing for my career to have a change of scenery,” he admitted. “At ECR, I came in as a rookie, got comfortable there. I just always had the same infrastructure around me.
“Now, last year with Dale Coyne Racing - and I was really honoured - I needed to prove myself. I really was a lot more involved with the team and learned a lot more in one season than I would in one season with ECR, being there for five years. [There were] a lot of new people - two different race engineers.
“I think that also showed Juncos Hollinger Racing what I can do, because if you are at a team for five years, nobody really knows how good it is. So if I go to another team… what I did with Dale Coyne Racing raised enough eyebrows where Juncos Hollinger Racing was very interested in me - and the same way the other way around.”
This volatility after such stability was not necessarily what VeeKay had expected in years gone by, but there is certainly merit to performing in multiple different environments. Having the opportunity to drive for a new team - and the opposite engine manufacturer - provided a necessary proving, or re-proving, ground for one of IndyCar’s somewhat forgotten talents.
As a result, his name started to circle in the conversation of hottest commodities among free agents again.
It was unfortunate in some ways that such a stellar year came ahead of an off-season where, compared to what may come ahead of the 2027 season, the driver market was never supposed to become too active.
Things did briefly become supremely silly when Colton Herta vacated his Andretti Global drive to pursue his Formula One dream and Will Power opted to depart Team Penske after 17 years. VeeKay, of course, was alert to these surprise alterations to the picture.
“You always try to find out,” he said. “You always want to see what your options are at all times. But it never showed like I was a definite option.”
As it was, Andretti could look no further than the legendary Power to replace Herta. And in Power’s place at Penske, David Malukas was always bound to be the replacement having been lined up in the pipeline at AJ Foyt Racing.
In reality, VeeKay’s options ended up being staying put and opting for stability at DCR after an excellent first season, or a drive at another ‘smaller team that could’ in the form of JHR.
“I looked at the cards we had and we made the right decision, I’m very sure” VeeKay said. “We inquired [about Andretti and Penske], but for now, the right decision by a mile is going for Juncos Hollinger Racing.
“I touched with JHR pretty early and it didn’t take us very long to get a deal done and then all get happy with the terms. For me, it was really between Dale Coyne Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing. Those were, for me, the big options for 2026.
“It’s always hard to make a decision like that, especially having a very successful season with Dale Coyne Racing in 2025. You think about it. You look in some different perspectives.
“For me, this clearly was the best move for me for the future.”
For VeeKay, it helps to have his foot through the door early on, rather than prolonged uncertainty essentially up into the month of race weekend track action commencing. He gets an entire off-season to bed into his new team - though actually a familiar one at that.
Signing for JHR marks a return to the organisation for VeeKay, having won the 2018 Indy Pro 2000 championship and finished runner-up in the 2019 Indy Lights season with Ricardo Juncos’ team ahead of graduating to IndyCar. There are many new names to learn in the expanded IndyCar outfit but also some recognisable faces too.
Based only 25 minutes from the JHR workshop, VeeKay is keen to embed himself and spend as much time as possible on the shop floor in the coming months.
“We still can get a lot done with the team [in the off-season], especially being new,” he rallied. “Getting to know the names, doing pit stop practice, really getting that brotherhood ready for the season.
“I’m very excited. [Myself and Juncos] always talked to each other, obviously see each other around. We were both interested in working together for this season and we met up a few times in the last season.
“I talked to the ‘H’ in JHR [co-owner Brad Hollinger] and I really liked their mentality, their ambition. Basically everything they told me really aligned with how I think about what needs to be done to be successful. It was an easy match.”
VeeKay remarked that he has already observed the professionalism and organisation that team principal Dave O’Neill has brought to the team. He values the shared ambitious mindset among the leadership and is encouraged by the team’s direction.
On track, for a driver that is the youngest front-row starter in Indianapolis 500 history and three times started on the front row at the Speedway for ECR, the Indy 500 package which saw Conor Daly in win contention in 2025 provided an allure.
“I can also bring some information and just knowledge from myself from the last six seasons to help the team,” VeeKay said. “I think we can have a historic season together.
“I see a lot of ambition, a lot of good people with incredible track records working at the team. And I think the team is a lot better than what they have been able to show. The car is already great, but then on the road and street courses I can help them a lot and I think we can be a consistent contender for top fives and top 10s.
“[On ovals], I think we can qualify really well with that car and keep racing up in the front and put ourselves in a position to get on the podiums all the time.”
VeeKay made it abundantly clear that his goal is to try and propel JHR to a position where they can consistently fight among IndyCar’s leading teams.
An extremely active driver market would appear to be inbound ahead of the 2027 campaign, which could present opportunities for VeeKay to step up to one of IndyCar’s established front-runners if he impresses again this year, but his commitment to the JHR project is unwavering. For the time being at least, he is all-in.
“[The active driver market] is one thing, but for me it’s for a number of years where I really want to help this team get where they deserve to be and work with them in the future,” VeeKay insisted. “And I really hope to get them into one of the top teams.
“Their number one step in becoming one is signing me and really, really get good results.
“With me coming into the team, showing what I’ve done to Dale Coyne Racing last year - not only as a driver but also in really leading the team into making the right decisions - altogether I think we can do really well.”
Never flirting with crossing the line into arrogance, there is a noticeable confidence about a reinvigorated VeeKay. He is embracing the task bestowed upon him of leading JHR - a team much like DCR in its punching-above-its-weight mould.
“I’ve grown a lot as a driver,” VeeKay analysed, reflecting on his last few seasons. “Really understanding how to build up a strategic IndyCar race is just really hard. I figured that out really the last season-and-a-half. It’s made it just so much easier for me to make decisions in the car and be a little bit less dependent on what people tell me.
“I myself, having driven for two totally different teams, can bring a lot of know-how and knowledge to the team to speed up that process. They’ve shown a lot of signs of a really quick car and success. They’ve just been lacking the consistency to do it every time.
“I think that’s what I can bring. The team is a lot better than other people think.”
VeeKay’s impact at DCR went far beyond the upturn of results on track, which were a product of his authority, insight and transparency behind the scenes. He was able to effectively problem-solve and, in some ways, knitted the team together.
After a tough Indy 500 campaign, which resulted in VeeKay knocking rookie teammate Jacob Abel out of the field, it was VeeKay who Abel credited for his support above anyone else. His leadership impact was wide-ranging.
“I really think guidance,” VeeKay said of what he brings to teams of DCR and JHR’s ilk. “There’s infinite things to look at on an Indy car and how to make it quicker but altogether it’s: what can they do to make the car respond to my influence the best?
“I’ve been able to show that really well with Dale Coyne Racing. I tell them what to fix and it’s being fixed. We keep it very basic but, in the end, I’ve shown to be a good driver in IndyCar in the past few years.
“My leadership within the team… we’re having a lot of fun. That’s one thing. Fun is very important but also just communication within the team to really tell them: ‘Hey, we need to work on this and this. I don’t like how the dampers feel.’ Stuff like that. I can pinpoint and narrow the search to what they need to fix.
“A lot of it is approach - not necessarily investments. It’s a shared effort with everybody together.”
Another crucial year awaits for VeeKay, who having still only turned 25 years old last month remains in the infancy of his career despite his masses of experience. A prodigious talent has reemerged as just that once again this year, but there is risk in stepping away from what was so successful in 2025 to put faith in another burgeoning project.
Expectations surrounding VeeKay have risen again and he is taking on great responsibility at JHR. But that is something he might just have grown to relish.
“I’m being hired to make the team better,” he asserted. “That’s their reason for hiring me, to make the team more successful. That’s my job description. That’s what I’m going to do. I have to think big-picture with the team to bring everybody up.
“Even though racing can seem like a very selfish sport, it’s still a lot of people behind the scenes that make everything work. You’ve got to be a team player and I’m excited to be one again here with Juncos Hollinger Racing.”
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