VeeKay’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, started the second round of the championship from eighth, but the young Dutchman was suffering severe understeer in the opening stint, prompting him to become the first front-runner to make a pitstop on Lap 53.
He had climbed to ninth before all cars stopped under yellow on Lap 103 and he emerged in sixth, and following a Lap 149 restart after the fourth and final caution, he was able to surge past Marcus Ericsson and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda and 10 laps later had passed all three Team Penske-Chevrolets to hit the front.
However, in order to make it on only one more stop in the 248-lap race, VeeKay and the other leading runners would have to feather the throttle, so after five laps he was backing up the pack, allowing Will Power to pass him for the lead.
By Lap 186 he had fallen to seventh, and made his final stop, five to eight laps before his rivals, which crippled his pace for the final stint and he eventually came home 10th.
“That was a hectic race,” said VeeKay, who scored his first IndyCar win last May in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. “I actually wasn’t too happy with the car when I started the race. I had a lot of understeer which had me pit a little bit early.
“After that front wing adjustment and new tires, I felt awesome. We were very fast. I could race at the front and had an awesome restart. We may have stopped a lap or two too early on the last stop. We were definitely hoping for a yellow to come and we would have been golden, but that didn’t happen.
“P10 it is! Pretty happy we made it over the line with a running engine, we were really tight on fuel. If we can call this a race not going our way, it’s pretty good."
Full-time teammate Conor Daly twice received drive-through penalties for speeding on pitlane and finished 18th, while team owner and oval specialist Ed Carpenter, making his first start of the season, started 21st and came home 13th.
Sato meanwhile, qualified a superb third for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda, and held that spot behind front-row starters Scott McLaughlin and Felix Rosenqvist for most of the opening stint.
However, when he pitted on Lap 62, the route into his pitbox was blocked by his rookie teammate David Malukas who had stalled departing his pitbox, and that dropped the two-time Indy 500 winner to 17th. Trying to pass Devlin DeFrancesco on Lap 98 around the outside of Turns 1 and 2, Sato’s left-front tire made contact with the right-rear of the Andretti Autosport car, which sent the Coyne car out of the groove, into the gray and into the wall.
Sato limped to the pits, the team made some repairs but something was seriously amiss with the handling of the car and it was decided to retire.
“We had mixed feelings today. Obviously disappointed to not finish the race but David [Malukas] had an exciting race [resulting in 11th] which was good for the team.
“We had a very fast car today. At the start, we weren’t very good, but I was able to regain my position moving up from fifth to third. I was able to stretch out our first stint. I think our tire management was better so I led the race in the perfect first stint.
“Unfortunately, we had a little issue with our teammate in pit lane and I couldn’t get into my box because I was blocked so I lost significant positions. In my second stint, as I was trying to get back to the front I was side-by-side with DeFrancesco and he had a moment and came up the track and made contact and I ended up damaging my suspension.
“It’s very unfortunate but the team did a fantastic job this weekend. I’m excited for the next race in Long Beach, we’ll be refreshed, and we’ll try our best again.”
