The 23-year-old Dutchman rocketed to the top of the leaderboard with a quick lap of 1m06.5463s at the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course.
“The car feels really good,” VeeKay said. “It felt pretty good yesterday.
“Couldn't really get a lap in on the red tires, but we made some changes overnight for what we thought was the right direction and it was the right direction. So that's really good.
“I'm excited for qualifying. It's usually a very good sign when you're fast in practice two.”
Romain Grosjean continued his strong weekend, with the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet finishing just off VeeKay at 0.0356s behind. Team Penske’s Scott Mclaughlin ended up third at 0.0636s off the top mark.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s duo of Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard wrapped up fourth and fifth, respectively.
Pato O’Ward was sixth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power in seventh.
Reigning and two-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou ended the session with his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in eighth. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who led the opening session on Friday and remains in the spotlight over his St. Petersburg disqualification, was ninth.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong, the 2023 IndyCar Rookie of the Year, finished 10th.
The session began with a red flag coming out less than three minutes in after Pietro Fittipaldi went off in Turn 2, suffering an steering failure.
“We were just doing laps and warming up the car,” Fittipaldi said. “Weren't really pushing and then my steering rack just came loose. Luckily, it didn't happen in the high-speed corner because it would've been pretty scary.
“I had no steering, basically. Disappointed because we need laps, obviously, to keep getting rhythm with these tracks I don't know. Obviously, doesn't help the race.”
Lundgaard went fastest shortly after the resumption of practice, producing a flying lap of 1m06.6973s. But VeeKay dethroned the Dane with his fast lap with 30 minutes to go.
The red flag came back out with 20 minutes remaining after Arrow McLaren’s Theo Pourchaire, making his second career IndyCar start this weekend, spun off course in Turn 14 after sliding over the crest of the hill. He was able to continue on after receiving assistance.
During the red flag, the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda of Felix Rosenqvist was seen getting pushed back to the paddock an engine issue, prematurely ending his session.
“We had a loss of power and then they said we have to park it [for] something with the engine,” Rosenqvist said. “So, unfortunate.
“I thought actually the car felt pretty good compared to yesterday, so I'm happier now going into qualifying than if it would've been yesterday.
“Bad luck, but we'll get her fixed here. I think we might do an engine change and see we end up in quali.”
Qualifying is set for later today at 3:30pm ET.
| Cla | Nº | Driver | Car / Engine | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.5463 | 18 | |
| 2 | 77 | Romain Grosjean | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.5819 | 0.0356 | 23 |
| 3 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.6099 | 0.0636 | 24 |
| 4 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Dallara/Honda | 1'06.6588 | 0.1125 | 21 |
| 5 | 45 | C.Lundgaard | Dallara/Honda | 1'06.6973 | 0.1510 | 19 |
| 6 | 5 | Patricio O'Ward | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.7528 | 0.2065 | 21 |
| 7 | 12 | Will Power | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.7736 | 0.2273 | 23 |
| 8 | 10 | Alex Palou | Dallara/Honda | 1'06.7776 | 0.2313 | 26 |
| 9 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.8082 | 0.2619 | 17 |
| 10 | 11 | Marcus Armstrong | Dallara/Honda | 1'06.8590 | 0.3127 | 24 |
| 11 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.8634 | 0.3171 | 16 |
| 12 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Dallara/Honda | 1'06.9763 | 0.4300 | 21 |
| 13 | 78 | Agustín Canapino | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'06.9977 | 0.4514 | 25 |
| 14 | 26 | Colton Herta | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.0557 | 0.5094 | 24 |
| 15 | 20 | C.Rasmussen | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'07.0712 | 0.5249 | 24 |
| 16 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'07.0893 | 0.5430 | 18 |
| 17 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.0927 | 0.5464 | 26 |
| 18 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.1810 | 0.6347 | 22 |
| 19 | 66 | Tom Blomqvist | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.2517 | 0.7054 | 21 |
| 20 | 8 | Linus Lundqvist | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.2799 | 0.7336 | 31 |
| 21 | 18 | Jack Harvey | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.5641 | 1.0178 | 25 |
| 22 | 4 | Kyffin Simpson | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.5755 | 1.0292 | 26 |
| 23 | 6 | Théo Pourchaire | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'07.6949 | 1.1486 | 25 |
| 24 | 51 | Luca Ghiotto | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.7358 | 1.1895 | 27 |
| 25 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | Dallara/Honda | 1'07.8813 | 1.3350 | 7 |
| 26 | 41 | Sting Ray Robb | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1'08.3179 | 1.7716 | 22 |
| 27 | 30 | P.Fittipaldi | Dallara/Honda | 1'18.4327 | 11.8864 | 1 |
