Dale Coyne Racing is seeking a new lead driver.
“We’ve let Dale know Rinus (VeeKay) isn’t coming back,” VeeKay’s agent Adrian Sussman confirmed to RACER. “We also said how much we appreciated everything that Dale did for Rinus, and I think it goes both ways. Rinus definitely helped Dale’s team get back on solid footing and everyone came out a winner. It’s been a fantastic year. Rinus loved being part of the team, loves the guys. And everyone punched above their weight.”
The move was foretold last Friday when the team held a press conference in downtown Nashville where
The Dutchman, who tested for the team late last year, was hired weeks prior to the start of t he season and became one of 2025’s great stories as he piloted the car engineered by Ed Nathan through Indianapolis, and Michael Cannon for the remainder of the championship, to 14th in the standings. In 2024, when the No. 18 was shared by four drivers, it placed last in the Entrants’ championship, which underscores how far the program improved with the 24-year-old installed.
Sussman wouldn’t be drawn on his client’s destination, but with an offer on the table from Coyne, the decision to step away from one of the stronger seats – where VeeKay was extremely happy and thriving with Cannon – would not have been made unless a bigger offer was recently presented.
Multiple sources have told RACER to look for VeeKay’s return alongside Santino Ferrucci at the Team Penske-affiliated AJ Foyt Racing to replace the outgoing David Malukas, who is expected to be confirmed as
With Penske supporting Foyt through a technical alliance that began halfway through 2023 and expanded into a wider enrichment package that came with Malukas in the No. 4 Chevy, placing VeeKay in the car would maintain Foyt’s team-wide competitiveness while giving Penske an inside look at the six-year veteran in the same way it got to evaluate Malukas throughout 2025.
