IndyCar 2020: RocketRinus is ready for launch

So, what many of us knew was coming for quite some time now has come to pass: thirty years after Arie Luyendyk first won the Indy 500, young Dutch ace Rinus van Kalmthout, better known as Rinus Veekay to his American friends, will become a full-time IndyCar driver in 2020 for Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR). It is the culmination of a three-year journey that started one early day in March 2017, in a USF2000 machine on the Streets of St Petersburg, after he and his family deliberately decided to shun the European ladder and focus on American open-wheel racing.

From the moment he swept the Indy Lights weekend in Laguna Seca and shifted his focus to the next challenge, it was clear that Rinus was on his way to IndyCar. He never cared much for the traditional approach to the Road To Indy ladder: learn in your first year, go for the title the next. Veekay needed just one season in USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights each to demonstrate his qualities, racking up 16 wins and 36 podiums in 48 races.

Less clear was exactly how Veekay would secure a drive in IndyCar. Was it going to be with ECR, the outfit run by all-American hero Ed Carpenter? Maybe with Carlin? Or somewhere else? For weeks (months, really), I tried making sense of it all by talking to numerous people, following up a never-ending cascade of leads and applying some basic logic to all the things I heard. Over the past two weeks, the pieces of the puzzle slowly started to fall into place.  

His new employer was always the best bet, of course. That ECR and Veekay were a good match was pretty apparent early on, but what form that match would take remained the subject of both speculation and negotiation. Already at the Portland GP, young Rinus was a guest on the ECR pit wall during the Sunday IndyCar race, which was a first clear indication that things were happening.

Initially, negotiations centered on the Ed Jones drive: ECR saw Veekay as a good candidate for the road and street courses while leaving the oval races to Ed Carpenter himself. But that was not good enough for Veekay and his people: Rinus was adamant that he wanted a full-time drive. No doubt dangling a bag of Dutch sponsorship funds in front of Big Ed helped a bunch in those talks.

Rinus’ conviction must also have been strengthened by the fact that his arch rival Oliver Askew hit the proverbial jackpot earlier this fall and landed a full time seat at Arrow McLaren SP. The Veekay-Askew rivalry has been raging since their go-karting days, so what could be better than these two young diamonds in the rough going at it again in 2020, vying for Rookie of the Year honors? It is just one of many stories that will make the 2020 season of the NTT IndyCar Series so exciting.

ECR Rookie Rinus Veekay

Photo Credit: Ed Carpenter Racing

With the cat now out of the proverbial bag, it is hard to overstate what today’s news means to the growth potential for IndyCar in the Netherlands, a small country that historically hasn’t been blessed with many successful racers. Being an IndyCar aficionado in Europe can be lonely, since most people simply do not understand what you’re going on about. Mentioning the Indy 500 might ring a vague bell for some, while there is an off chance that people have heard of Luyendyk, who in recent years has acted as a coach, sounding board and confidant for the Veekay family.

Sure, in a country that in recent years has gone mad for once-in-a-lifetime F1 ace Max Verstappen, some Dutch fans have started to look a bit further and see what else is out there in terms of motor racing. The fact that F1 and IndyCar are broadcast on the same pay TV channel has helped as well. But by and large, IndyCar racing has been an acquired taste for Dutch audiences.

Expect this to change as the 2020 season kicks off. I am not anticipating a “RinusMania” in the same mould as the “MaxMania” currently engulfing the Netherlands – after all, IndyCar is by definition a more niche interest than F1. But the Dutch are nothing if not enthusiastic about supporting their athletes around the world. And there is one important, common factor between Verstappen and Veekay that is likely to provide a boost: both drivers are backed by ECR’s new major commercial partner, the Jumbo food group.

It may not be a household name in the United States, but Jumbo is a sizeable firm. It racked up close to EUR 8 bln (USD 9 bln) in revenue in 2018 (it does not report profits), and is the Netherlands’ second largest grocer with a 20+ per cent market share. Another company that is part of the Jumbo conglomerate, restaurant chain La Place, has also (and will continue to) appeared prominently on Veekay’s race cars. The company prides itself on a folksy, easy-going reputation and boosts that brand image by supporting selected Dutch athletes it positions as Heroes, with a capital H.

Veekay perfectly fits that bill. After all, Jumbo CEO Frits van Eerd is not only a highly successful businessman (and a long-time pal of Rinus’ father Marijn), but also an enthusiastic motorsport aficionado who invests considerable sums in racing. As mentioned, Van Eerd acts as a personal sponsor for Verstappen (who regularly appears in Dutch TV ads for Jumbo), while he also has his own World Endurance Championship team – in which he himself is one of the drivers.

Starting next year, I expect Jumbo to piggyback on Veekay’s graduation to the big leagues and increase its brand exposure in two ways. At home, Veekay will generate even more attention for the Jumbo brand and his down-to-earth, guy-next-door demeanor will help it to continue growing its market share. As Van Eerd says, Veekay is a perfect fit with Jumbo’s brand DNA. A joint Max Verstappen-Rinus Veekay TV ad seems like a no-brainer.

Meanwhile, Jumbo reportedly has ambitious plans to grow its La Place business in the US. It has been the official food supplier at Google’s New York and San Francisco offices for some years now, a lucrative line of business it is keen to expand. La Place food kiosks are also a common sight at train stations and airports in the Netherlands, another potential area of growth in the US.

And this is where the broader interest of today’s announcement comes in. As some of us are still trying to make sense of the Roger Penske acquisition of the NTT IndyCar Series, the arrival of Jumbo in the IndyCar paddock serves as an early example of how the series can accelerate its growth in coming years. It illustrates that from a commercial point of view, there is no reason why IndyCar should have to limit itself to the US.

Because while America will always remain its home turf, IndyCar’s obvious growth potential in foreign markets should make the series more interesting for other blue chip sponsors similar to Jumbo. While Veekay replaces an all-American kid like Spencer Pigot, raising some eyebrows in more traditional circles, there is an undeniable upside to IndyCar spreading its wings. Jumbo’s Van Eerd said during today’s press conference that he not only hopes, but expects more Dutch business to join the Veekay bandwagon – which is no doubt music to Ed Carpenter’s ears.

And it is not just Holland. Another good example of overseas potential is the massive increase in IndyCar exposure in Sweden, the home country of Ganassi teammates Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist. More eyeballs across European markets means more advertising dollars, further raising the commercial viability of IndyCar that Penske Corp is keen to exploit in coming years.

For Ed Carpenter Racing, meanwhile, this week’s news amounts to a full reset in the same way Schmidt Peterson Motorsports reinvented itself following the arrival of McLaren. After a few lackluster years, the ECR organization is hoping that a hard reset will bring the team back to its glory years of only a few years ago, when it was winning races and challenging the traditional top teams.

One of the big questions for this season will be whether Veekay (and his yet-to-be-named team mate) is that much sought-after improvement. Pigot is undoubtedly a fine driver and was valued highly by Chevy engineers for his abilities to provide feedback. Like Veekay and Askew, he was a contender at every rung of the Road To Indy ladder, and on his best days Pigot is as good an IndyCar driver as anyone.

Having said that, everything indicates that Veekay will be a rookie force to be reckoned with. Word on the street has it that Veekay actually outperformed Pigot pretty quickly in the simulator, while also massively impressing the ECR crew during his real-life test sessions at Portland and, especially, Mid-Ohio with his pace and feedback. It was at the Ohio track where he ran lap times that would have given him a front row start at this year’s Honda 200. For a rookie, that’s encouraging, to put it mildly. No wonder Ed Carpenter is convinced that Veekay “is going to be very good”.

Add to that his ability to bring on board some much-needed commercial partners at ECR, and it all starts to make sense. The team never really recovered from losing Josef Newgarden and his outstanding race engineer Jeremy Milless, but Newgarden’s transfer to Penske showed that ECR has all the making of a breeding ground for future champions. It is a team where young drivers can hone their skills and grow into complete IndyCar drivers before taking the next step.

The Veekay family no doubt considered this particular fact when putting their eggs in the ECR basket. In interviews in the Netherlands, young Rinus has explicitly voiced his ambition to drive for Penske within the next three years. With that in mind, ECR is a perfect springboard as he seeks to position himself as a successor for Simon Pagenaud and (especially) Will Power, both of whom are likely in the twilight of their Penske careers. Apart from chasing Rookie of the Year honours in 2020, Veekay expects to fight for podiums sooner rather than later, a perfectly reasonable target.

It is easy for this writer to invite accusations of bias: I am a Dutchman myself and I have followed Rinus Veekay for years now. But I have also been around for quite some time, and talents like this are rare in motorsports, regardless of nationality. Just like Askew, Veekay brings to IndyCar a combination of raw speed, adaptability, consistency and near-infallibility – all packaged in the appearance of a sympathetic and media-friendly 19-year old.

So, just like Zak Brown will be seen as a genius in a year from now for betting the Arrow McLaren SP farm on Askew and Patricio O’Ward, I am convinced that Ed Carpenter will soon be seen as a visionary for putting his faith in a young kid from Hoofddorp, the Netherlands. To paraphrase his fans’ favorite hashtag on social media, ‘RocketRinus’ is ready for launch.