Rinus VeeKay delivered an encore performance and once again took the fight to IndyCar’s best en route to a fourth-place finish at Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
After starting sixth in the #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) Chevrolet, the Dutchman leaned on an aggressive tire strategy by starting on the softer alternate (red sidewall) tires. He quickly jumped up two spots on the opening lap and was among the first to dive to pit lane, swapping to the preferred harder primary (black sidewall tires) once the three-stop window opened for the 90-lap race.
By the time the second pit window cycled out, VeeKay was running third and stalking the juggernaut duo of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard. While a shot to upset everything was derailed by a slow final stop, VeeKay was still able to fend off the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou to secure the first spot off the podium.
“The crew did a great job,” said VeeKay, 25. “We made a good strategy plan beforehand. We knew the red tires were gonna be hard to hold on to. It was overcast to start the race, so we decided to start on those reds, get some spots at the start, which I did. That was good. And then once the three-stop window opened, we ditched them and went for clean track on the blacks, so really good pit cycles there. Really good pit stops by the crew.”
4th place in Mid-Ohio! Great race from start to finish, great job by everyone at @juncoshollinger for giving me the weapons to fight for the podium! pic.twitter.com/mFVDaesHHH
— Rinus VeeKay (@rinusveekay) July 6, 2026
The outing marked the second fourth-place result for VeeKay and JHR over the last three race weekends, matching the performance at Road America. Additionally, it marks the best result for JHR on a road course since Romain Grosjean secured the same finish at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca during the 2024 season.
VeeKay, in the midst of his seventh season in North America’s premier open-wheel championship but first at the top flight with JHR, now has two top fives and four top 10 finishes on the year, elevating him to 11th in the championship standings; he sits just three points behind Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson for 10th.
With VeeKay currently on a one-year deal, his name has been among several during IndyCar’s ‘silly season’ that has already seen remarkable changes, such as the confirmed departure of six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing at season’s end.
In short, finishing just off a podium that was occupied by O’Ward, Lundgaard, and Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood won’t hurt VeeKay’s future plans, but for now, he was more focused on the result at Mid-Ohio’s 13-turn, 2.258-mile natural terrain road course.
“Unfortunately, we got beat on the final one,” VeeKay said. “But today we showed – the fairly small team that we are – that once we run up front, we can run with the big guys.”
