Coyne bouyed by "post-season podium"

Yesterday at 04:29 PM

Dale Coyne Racing had a miserable month of May. Often one of the faster teams, both of Coyne's entries struggled from the outset of practice, lacked speed, and were relegated to the Last Chance Qualifiers session to try and make it into the Indianapolis 500.

From there, Coyne watched as Nolan Siegel crashed for the second time and failed to make the show, and while Katherine Legge put in a mighty performance to earn 31st in the field of 33, her efforts in the race went unrewarded as the day lasted all of 22 laps before the engine blew.

It was a stinging experience for the veteran team owner, which made DCR's recent return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first test on the 2.5-mile oval with the Dallara DW12 in hybrid specification a meaningful opportunity to demonstrate the team's improvements since Josef Newgarden won the rain-delayed thriller and Legge was classified a disappointed 29th.

Although Coyne planned on running former driver and free agent Sting Ray Robb at the hybrid test, he installed newly-former Ed Carpenter Racing driver and Indy 500 savant Rinus VeeKay in the No. 18 Honda. The results were immediate as the Dutchman produced the third-fastest lap of the test with a 223.383mph tour, directly behind Newgarden and 2023 Indy 500 polesitter Alex Palou.

"It was good," Coyne told RACER. "We’ve made a lot of engineering changes since ending last year, and I think we’ve seen it. I just don’t think the public has seen it. We had Katherine turn the fastest lap of the race at Race 1 in Milwaukee, and Jack turned the fastest lap in Race 2. And obviously, we all saw what Toby Sowery and Hunter McElrea did in our cars. So we’ve been getting better but just haven’t really shown it.

"So it was bittersweet to go back to Indy where the month of May was a disaster, and we crashed a couple cars and missed the race to come there and run first in class. Really, the two cars in front of us both had, I believe, 2025 engines, and we were the first of the rest. We’re back on track. We didn’t have much to show for the month of May this year, so to go back there in the fall and do what we did is a great morale booster for everybody. It was like our 'post-season podium.'"

For VeeKay, the impromptu collaboration with Coyne went as well as he could have hoped.

"It was definitely quick, but it was a good experience," VeeKay said. "Starting the day, I was still learning everybody’s name. We started out in the morning still going over measurements a little bit, making sure my position in the car and every everything felt the same as what I was used to. And then in the afternoon, we got the car in a good spot, and went through all the their testing plans, and they were very excited to work for me, and I was excited to work with them. It was a day of unknowns in the beginning, but then I think we worked together like we’ve been working together for years. So that was a good surprise."

Coyne shared VeeKay's enthusiasm for the collaboration.

"I think we all got along great with him, and he along great with us, and his feedback was good," he said. "He told us what the car was doing, didn’t tell us how to fix it. We figured that out and just kept going faster and faster all day."

It's too early to say if the Coyne and VeeKay pairing will extend beyond the hybrid test, but the 24-year-old would like conversations to continue with the Illinois-based team about working together in 2025.

"After the test, we were both happy with each other," VeeKay said. "I think I impressed them in some ways out there, and they impressed me. I might have created some opportunities, which I still believe are there. It’s hard to say with the amount of seats that are open right now, but doing a test with Dale and really getting to know each other, him hearing my feedback, and seeing how I work behind the scenes, because nobody really has ever had a chance outside of ECR that definitely, maybe gave him a view of my value to the team.

"And that team and the crew, which I think is definitely under-underestimated, I think we can make really fast cars and good results in there. There’s a lot that's possible, and yeah, hopefully we can continue working together in the future."