VeeKay joins Coyne to complete 2025 IndyCar field
Yesterday at 10:00 AM
The 2025 IndyCar Series grid is complete. Dale Coyne Racing, which held the last of 27 seats to fill, has done as expected and signed five-year veteran Rinus VeeKay to drive the No. 18 Honda and lead new teammate Jacob Abel, who will drive the No. 51 Honda during his rookie season.
"He’s hungry, he’s got unfinished business," Coyne told RACER. "We are the same, and I think it’ll work out very well. The test that we did with him at Indy in the fall was really an eye-opener for all of us. And he came in, didn’t he didn’t say how to fix the car. He said what the car was doing, and we came up with how to fix the car, and it was wonderful to get back in that position again. So many times the driver comes in, they get a preconceived idea of how they think the car should be fixed, and there’s pride in ownership. So unless you do that for him, you don’t get anywhere.
"With Rinus, it was like, ‘Here’s what the car is doing,’ and we just said, 'Okay, we’re gonna try this. Here’s why we’re trying it.' It was a good; just just basic engineering."
The Dutchman arrives at a Coyne team in need of a fast and experienced ace to help the Illinois-based outfit to pivot from a challenge-filled 2024. He'll have CART IndyCar Series and NASCAR veteran Ed Nathman as his race engineer. Fellow CART veteran John Dick has been hired to engineer Abel, creating a fun dynamic where Coyne has two of IndyCar's youngest drivers paired with two of its most senior engineers.
"We’ve got older engineers now, but the car is still the car," Coyne said. "You still need maximum grip, maximum aerodynamics. You need to make the tires work and last. Power, whether it’s normally aspirated or the hybrid, that’s a tool. You just have to learn how to incorporate that in as efficiently as possible. But the basic race car is still a basic race car."
VeeKay will make his official debut as a Dale Coyne Racing driver on Monday at Sebring where the entire field will spend two days getting ready for opening practice at St. Petersburg at the end of the month.
