IndyCar: Zach Veach making major strides in rookie season

By Asher Fair | Sep 1, 2018

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 08: Zach Veach, driver of the #26 Relay Group 1001 Honda, stands on the grid during the US Concrete Qualifying Day for the Verizon IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 8, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

After a slow start, Zach Veach has made major strides in his rookie IndyCar season driving for Andretti Autosport this year.

Zach Veach spent several seasons driving for Andretti Autosport in the Mazda Road to Indy before he was promoted to the team as a full-time IndyCar driver this year. The 23-year-old Stockdale, Ohio native had a rough start to his rookie season, which he began having driven in just two races in his IndyCar career, but he has made some major strides since.

In the first 11 races of the 2018 season, the driver of the #26 Honda showed flashes of potential, none bigger than the one he showed by finishing in fourth place in the third race of the season, the race on the streets of Long Beach, California, after starting in 16th. He also ran well early in the race at Texas Motor Speedway before ultimately falling several laps behind the leaders.

But even though he drives for arguably the top team in IndyCar, Veach’s fourth place finish in the race on the streets of Long Beach ended up being his only top 11 finish in the season’s first 11 races, as his next best finish after that was his 12th place result in the first of two races on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan.

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However, ever since the 11th race of the season at Iowa Speedway, Veach has taken major steps forward to the point where he has become a frontrunner and a contender for race wins at pretty much every track that IndyCar travels to.

Following his disappointing 20th place finish in the race at Iowa Speedway, Veach finished in seventh in the race on the streets of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He followed that solid result up with another solid result, a 10th place finish in the race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

For the first time in his IndyCar career, Veach then topped the speed chart in the practice session ahead of the race at Pocono Raceway before tying his career-high qualifying effort of seventh place, which he also recorded for the second race on the streets of Belle Isle earlier this year. He went on to finish the race at Pocono Raceway in sixth.

After being quick in practice but having to start toward the rear of the field because of the fact that the starting grid was set based on entry points due to rain, Veach made his way to the front of the field in the race at Gateway Motorsports Park. He led the first two laps of his IndyCar career toward the end of the race and came just a few laps shy of being able to stretch his fuel load to potentially win it. He ended up finishing in fifth place.

After finishing in the top 11 in just one of the season’s first 11 races, Veach has racked up four top 10 finishes in the last four races: one on a street course, one on a road course, one on a superspeedway and one on a short oval. His average finish was just 16.18 in the first 11 races of 2018. In the four races since then, it is 7.00.

Veach has been consistently fast in practice, qualifying and the races themselves over the past several weeks regardless of the track or the type of track. Andretti Autosport team owner Michael Andretti signed him knowing that he may take some time to develop, but that is why he signed him to a three-year deal. Andretti did so fully expecting him to compete with the sport’s heavy hitters before that three-year deal expires.

Just 15 races into his full-time IndyCar career, he is already doing so.

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Will Zach Veach secure his first career IndyCar victory before the 2018 season ends? The remaining two races on this year’s schedule are road course races, with one at Portland International Raceway and the other at Sonoma Raceway. If he doesn’t win either one of those two races, when and where will he secure his first career victory?