Rinus VeeKay channels Mario Andretti's wisdom during coffee run at Long Beach
The Dale Coyne Racing driver Rinus VeeKay shared an Instagram story with his followers. He was seen grabbing a coffee during his morning run in Long Beach, California.
VeeKay is preparing for this weekend's race, the ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach. The #18 driver posted the picture along with a geolocation tag, and the caption read:
"Morning quote @carmenveekay"
The Dutch driver went out on a coffee run along with his professional boxing wife and posted a quote he found on the pavement on his Instagram story. The quote was by the racing giant Mario Andretti. It read:
"If everything seems under control you're not going fast enough -Mario Andretti"
The rest of his stories were about him touring around Long Beach and his morning walk with his Strava stats.
This will be Rinus VeeKay's first outing at the Long Beach track as a Dale Coyne Racing driver. During the 2024 season with Ed Carpenter Racing, he started the race in 18th place and finished in 14th. The Dutchman's race started strong as he made up places in the first few laps of the race, however, the second pit stop let him down as the crew struggled to get off the old compounds.
Due to this, Veekay lost places, and later on, he lost the grip from the tires and had to nurse them to the end of the race to finish in 14th position.
Rinus VeeKay was axed by Ed Carpenter Racing at the end of the 2024 season. He was signed by Dale Coyne Racing in February 2025 just a few days before the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. However, he will look forward to improving at this year's race with the team.
Rinus VeeKay speaks about being let go by Ed Carpenter Racing
The Dutch driver Rinus VeeKay spoke about being let go by his former team, Ed Carpenter Racing, at the end of the 2024 IndyCar season. He also highlighted how he didn't expect ECR to terminate him due to his connection with the team.
Ed Carpenter Racing let go of VeeKay, and they signed 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi. This left the Dutchman without a seat for the upcoming 2025 season, but right before the 2025 season kicked off, Veekay managed to get a seat with DCR.
While in conversation with Motorsports.com, Rinus VeeKay mentioned how he was shocked by all of the happenings that took him by surprise.
“I didn't see it coming. I was in the gym and got a few calls from my manager. I picked up and he told me ‘you won't believe this, but Ed doesn't want to continue and is going in a different direction with the line-up’. It came as a complete surprise to me, because in Nashville I sat down with Ed and told my crew ‘guys don't worry, I'll be back next year,’” he said
“I felt they were happy with me and I have always been very loyal. But at the first opportunity that came up, they decided to go into a different direction,” he added
Veekay was let go by the team at the end of the IndyCar season, which allowed him to test at Indianapolis Motorspeedway with other potential teams, one of them being DCR.