Rinus VeeKay continued his impressive mid-season momentum on Sunday, driving the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish at the Grand Prix of Portland.
Starting fifth on the 12-turn, 1.964-mile Portland International Raceway, the 25-year-old Dutchman ran a controlled race, avoided chaos, and relied on fast pit work to maximize his result. The performance marks VeeKay’s third fourth-place finish over his last five starts, bringing his total to five top-10 results on the year and firming his spot of 10th place in the championship standings.
“Yeah, we had a really good day. Starting up front helps – saves you from taking a lot of risks that cannot pay off,” VeeKay said post-race. “I think we just had a very stellar day. We had a good idea on strategy, and we kept calm and did what we wanted to do at the start. Kept out of trouble.”
A crucial late-race pit sequence proved decisive, allowing VeeKay to jump the Andretti Global duo of Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood.
“A really good job by the pit crew to get me ahead of both Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood at the end,” VeeKay said. “Really happy to have a result like this with AM/PM on the car as well, and great to put Chevy up there.”
The top-five finish underscores a major turnaround for the No. 76 program in the second half of the season. After a difficult outing at Road America, the team identified key setup changes during a productive test session at Mid-Ohio.
“I think we just figured out our road course car,” VeeKay said. “My testing in Mid-Ohio… really just made a huge difference for our program, and we found some things that really need to change, especially after a really tough weekend in Road America. I think we are starting to figure things out, this far into the season.”
With a road-course package now performing more consistently, VeeKay and Juncos Hollinger Racing now turn their attention to a pair of street courses before heading into a late-season oval doubleheader.
“We have a doubleheader coming up in Milwaukee, so we’re really, really excited for that,” VeeKay said. “But first, two new street courses. Yeah, it should be a lot of fun.”
