RACE RESULTS

20th: CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN No. 20 GuyCare Chevrolet
24th: RINUS VEEKAY No. 21 Direct Supply Chevrolet

NEXT RACE: Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, June 23 (NBC, 6 p.m. ET)

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, NO. 20 GUYCARE CHEVROLET

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, No. 20 GuyCare Chevrolet, Finished 20th: “What a frustrating day. There was pace for so much more, but the incident early on prohibited us from doing that with the penalty that I received. A stop-and-go under green when others were able to serve their drive throughs under yellow, I thought that was very harsh and I really did not understand. Other than that, I thought the pace was pretty good. We made great improvements from warm up to the race in terms of car balance, especially on the black tires. While that was a positive, I am just very frustrated with not being able to get a good result.”

OF NOTE: 

• Christian Rasmussen started 16th in today’s XPEL Grand Prix at Road America. In the rain-soaked Practice 2 yesterday, he set the third-fastest lap. The wet conditions continued into the afternoon’s qualifying session and Rasmussen remained quick. Following a red flag, he had only one lap to turn a fast lap on a second set of wet tires. Despite going wide in one corner, he still managed to improve his lap time and move up to 16th on the starting grid.

• Rasmussen gained five positions in the first corner by deftly avoiding a multi-car accident. After two restarts, Rasmussen had worked his way into the Top 10. On Lap 6, he was unable to avoid the car directly ahead of him and made contact. He was issued a stop-and-go penalty under green flag conditions, which dropped him from 10th to 26th. 

• With the circuit being four miles in length, he re-joined the race with no other cars around him. As there were no additional cautions, the field was never packed back up. Rasmussen did not have any opportunities to race his way back forward, but he picked up positions as others faced misfortune and took the checkered flag in 20th.

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 DIRECT SUPPY CHEVROLET

RINUS VEEKAY, No. 21 Direct Supply Chevrolet, Finished 24th: “We were running a great race. We had moved forward pretty well, stayed out of all of the trouble at the beginning. We had Top 10 pace, that’s what I knew coming into the race and that’s what it felt like during the race.  I struggled a bit with vibrations at the end of tire stints which was not ideal and did lose a bit of pace there. Then near Lap 40, I had a suspension component failure on the left front and that put us several laps back. Really a bummer and I really hope our luck goes the other way sometime. Looking forward to a weekend off and hugging my dog!”

OF NOTE: 

•  Rinus VeeKay qualified 17th for today’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at Road America. Yesterday’s qualifications were declared wet, meaning competitors could run on rain tires. VeeKay was 5th in his group until after the checkered flag, when he was bumped down by others who were able to complete their final four-mile lap with newer tires.

• VeeKay worked his way through the opening lap incident and picked up four positions. By the 10th lap, he was solidly inside of the Top 10. He used fresh tires following his first pit stop to race his way forward and pick up two more positions.

• On Lap 39, VeeKay reported that his steering no longer felt straight. He brought the No. 21 Direct Supply Chevrolet to the pit lane while the crew worked to repair a suspension component failure. He fell two laps behind the field and on his own race lap. Same as his teammate, he did not have the opportunity to make up any additional positions on track and finished 24th.