By David Morgan, Associate Editor
“You ever play chess with yourself?”
As his two cars dueled it out in the waning minutes of the Sunday’s Last Chance Qualifying to determine who would make the field for the 109th Indianapolis 500, Dale Coyne Racing team owner Dale Coyne was resigned to the fate that one of his cars would miss the field while the other would live to fight another day and race next Sunday.
With rookie Jacob Abel on the outside looking in and veteran Rinus VeeKay occupying the final spot in the field, the decision was made to pull VeeKay’s time and allow him to go on the offense and try and put up a faster lap.
But that call nearly backfired as VeeKay’s four-lap average of 226.913 mph was slower than his first run.
So, why send VeeKay back out when he already put up a time to place ahead of his teammate?
“This is like playing chess with yourself when you know each side’s strategy, but you have two queens on the board and they have their own minds,” Coyne quipped, comparing the decision to playing the classic strategy board game.
Coyne continued, explaining that VeeKay did not have the use of his hybrid on the first run and the thinking was that if the regen on the hybrid worked as intended on the second run, he could put up a faster time.
“He didn’t have regen the first qualifying run, so we thought he’d go a little but quicker with the regen, but we went a little slower.”
From there, it was just a waiting game for VeeKay to see if his young teammate could best him.
But Abel just didn’t have the speed, posting a four-lap average of 226.394 mph and becoming the lone driver to get bumped from the 33-car Indy 500 field.
For VeeKay, it was mixed emotions having made it in, but also having to watch his teammate go home.
“I feel relief, but not real happiness,” said VeeKay. “We were just very slow, both Jacob and I. Unfortunately, it was one of the two that was going to go out. Jacob’s not just a teammate, he’s a real friend, so I feel bad for him. It was going to be his first, this will be my sixth [Indy 500].
“Of course, it feels good to make the field, but it is very, very much the definition of bittersweet.”
When asked about the decision to go out and make a second run with the risk of not making the field, VeeKay echoed his team owner’s comments about the lack of hybrid power on the first run and just wanting to give it a shot.
“I didn’t know if it was going to be better, but want to leave anything up to chance,” VeeKay said. “I just wanted to go out there. It was a very slow run, so I was really afraid. I thought that was it. I’m actually happy that Jacob went out and he was slower in the end.
“We need to find some speed now for the race because with this pace being so far off the next car, we don’t really have a chance there.”
Meanwhile for Abel, he walks away from Indianapolis having given it his all, but that it just wasn’t in the cards for him or his No. 51 team.
“No, sadly” Abel said when asked if there were anything more he could have done to make the field of 33. “Unfortunately, starting yesterday, we’ve kind of been preparing for this a little bit.
“Super weird situation. We were happy all week long. The 51 Miller High Life car was fast and ww were fast in no-tows. We were very, very conservative with everything. Kind of ready to trim out yesterday. Kind of seems like something happened overnight heading into Saturday and we lost speed and it’s just been getting slower and slower in every single run.
“Thought we had a chance there at the end because our teammate went slower. It’s not how you want to do it, obviously. We’re both back there. I don’t need to tell you guys how good Rinus VeeKay is around here.
“I think we’re struggling a little bit. It sucks. This was going to be my first Indy 500, but hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later.”
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