Two races at Mid-Ohio and at the Indianapolis Road Course, followed by one race on the Streets of St. Petersburg. That is all there is left of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series Season. Barring a major upset, it seems a pretty safe bet that Scott Dixon will pick up his sixth INDYCAR title this year, but the winner of the Rookie of the Year championship is anyone’s guess at this point.

Young Dutchman Rinus VeeKay is leading the chase, but Catalan hotshot Alex Palou and reigning Indy Lights champion Oliver Askew are close on his heels. All three youngsters note that the 2020 season has been a weird one. “It's of course nice to be leading the rookie championship, but there's way more than that,” VeeKay says. “It's quite crazy. I've had quite a weird season I think, and then having one good weekend and you're leading the rookie championship. You never know what’s going to happen, but I am going to give it my all.”

Askew agrees with his Dutch rival. “Everything is so close right now, even between all the veterans, you have one good weekend and you jump so many places in the championship, so honestly I had no idea what the points deficit was between the rookies,” the American notes. “I just need to make sure that we do our homework and show up and be fast right away, because on these condensed weekends if you're not on it in practice one, it just kind of snowballs into the rest of the sessions. That's what I'm focused on right now, and I'm sure the other guys are thinking the same.”

Image courtesy of Indycar Media

As for Palou, he expresses some frustration with how the COVID-interrupted season has influenced his learning curve. “I think this year it's been real difficult for everybody,” says the Dale Coyne Racing driver. “Being a rookie, you come to INDYCAR expecting to struggle at the beginning, to have like 15 weekends to try and perform the last six or eight weekends, and to have two, three practices before going to qualifying, to having an extra set of tires, extra running time, compared to the others.

“It's been a bit frustrating just because I didn't think I had the normal rookie year as I could have. But it's fine. We still have two races at Mid-Ohio, two races at Indy GP, where I also know the track,” Palou adds. “Hopefully we're going to finish at St. Petersburg street course. It's going to be important to obviously win the rookie championship. But still I think there's a long way to go. As soon as some of us wins a race or score a couple of podiums, that's going to make a huge difference. You will go from 15 in the championship to top eight I think as soon as you win one race.”

A self-critical rookie class

Asked how they rate their season so far, all three rookies are self-critical and point out that they haven’t done as well as they would have hoped. VeeKay is unfamiliar with the American grade system, prefers the European approach of a ranking between one and ten. “Let's say… I think a seven,” he says after brief consideration. “It's been a hard year. I've made quite a few mistakes, but after all, I'm learning a lot. So yeah, I think seven. I think it's a good number. It's not perfect at all, but I think I'm doing a good job so far.”

Askew is slightly tougher on himself when discussing his own performance levels. “I think I'm pretty hard on myself, so I'd give myself a six, 60 percent -- well, 67 percent,” says the Arrow McLaren SP youngster. “I just think I've lacked a little consistency. I mean, I know the speed is there. We were in the Fast Six right away in Indy GP qualifying and we had a really good weekend in Iowa. Like Rinus says, it's such a weird season and you just need to capitalize and make sure you're on it all the time because it's such a close series. So if you feel a little bit off one day, it looks like you're having a really bad weekend because everyone is so close together. So I think I just need to be a little bit more consistent and the results will be there.”

Consistency is also on Palou’s mind as he reflects on this season. “I think all the rookies are really close, but I think lately we all had some problems,” he argues. “We are not scoring points. Rinus had a really good weekend last weekend. But the rest, he was struggling all season. Same for Askew, he had a couple good races, same as me. But we're not doing a really good job, to be honest, all the rookies. We are always there, really quick, but we are never scoring points.”

The most competitive series in the world

Regardless of how the Rookie of the Year battle ends, all three are mightily impressed with the level of competition in the NTT IndyCar Series and are determined to stick around for a long time. “Honestly, my unbiased opinion is that this series is the most competitive in the world at the moment,” says Askew. “You know, to come in as a rookie, there's a lot to learn, and if you don't take a stand against the veterans, they're going to understand that and use you up as much as they can. It's super tough, and probably more tough than many people realize.”

VeeKay agrees and says that his years on the Road to Indy have been a good preparation for his rookie season. “I've always driven against Oliver. He's always been a benchmark,” notes the Ed Carpenter Racing driver. “But now there are 24 more Olivers, so you're not just looking to Oliver. There's so many fast guys (…) You know you're not going to be a few tenths ahead of anyone else. It's super tough, but yeah, it's nice to see that those years battling with Oliver really helped me prepare towards INDYCAR.”

“I learned that INDYCAR is really, really difficult,” adds Palou. “It's tough for everybody. It's tough for the big guys. I came here without any experience on ovals, without any experience on INDYCAR obviously. Racing is a bit different in America than in Japan, than in Europe. I tried to understand how this racing works. As we can see, people like Scott Dixon, he can win three races in a row, and the next race he's 10th without having any problem, it's just because it's so difficult to get everything good together. INDYCAR is super, super competitive. As soon as you don't have 100% of everything, of the driver, of the car, of the tires, the team, you start to struggle. It makes this championship really difficult, and really attractive.”

The last word is for the leader in the rookie standings, Rinus VeeKay. While both Askew and Palou have already scored their first INDYCAR podium, the Dutch phenomenon is still looking for his first top-3 finish. Asked by Champweb whether it might be a good idea to celebrate his 20^th birthday this weekend with a podium in Mid-Ohio, he smiles and nods. “Yeah, it's coming close. Of course, in race 2 in Gateway I was on podium course, so it really sucked that I just grabbed next to the podium. Fourth was already amazing, but the podium is really a place I want to go to now. There's only one rookie season, and I want to get a podium in my rookie season, so that's a big goal for me.”

-JD