Rinus VeeKay overcomes crash with flourish for pole chance

INDIANAPOLIS — Rinus VeeKay changed his fortunes with one late, daring Indianapolis 500 qualifying run Saturday.

It could change the trajectory of his season.

The 23-year-old Dutch driver overcame an early crash that forced crew members to scramble to repair the No. 21 Chevrolet and then jumped from 29th to 11th on the second-to-last run of the day to make his fifth straight pole shootout with a four-lap average of 232.419 mph. He bumped Colton Herta out of the 12th and final spot in the shootout as his mother prayed while watching.

“Wow, wow, just incredible,” VeeKay said after his fourth and final qualifying attempt of the day. “Wow! What a job. I’ll be driving tomorrow.”

For most of Saturday, it appeared VeeKay’s four-year run of making the shootout was over.

His car wiggled going through the third turn on his first qualifying run then spun up the track into the wall. The car skidded between the third and fourth turns and hit the Turn 4 wall before coming to rest in the front straightaway. VeeKay limped to the medical truck but was checked, released and cleared to drive at the infield medical center.

Three hours later, Ed Carpenter Racing had the car repaired, but it took two more attempts to earn one of the 30 spots available Saturday on the 33-car starting grid.

“It’s not ideal, but we made it happen and it’s pretty awesome,” VeeKay said.

Then, in the waning minutes of qualifying, VeeKay’s team withdrew his speed and sent him back onto the track despite multiple Chevrolet-powered cars losing power during their runs Saturday.

But VeeKay, who has an expiring contract and no finishes higher than eighth this season, strung together laps of 233.448, 232.614, 231.957 and 231.653 to give himself — and Carpenter’s team — another shot to win a pole. VeeKay has started fourth, third, third and second in his first four Indy 500 starts.

“Usually you don’t expect the car to go out on the same day again, so great job by them,” VeeKay said. “The speed out there was unexpected for most.”

CLOSE CALL

Aside from VeeKay, perhaps nobody had a more tenuous day than Katherine Legge, who posted a four-lap average of 230.244 mph on her first attempt to make the provisional field despite tapping the wall on the final turn of her last lap.

She completed the run in the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing car but almost immediately realized it wasn’t likely to keep her in the top 30.

“It was terrifying, honestly,” Legge said. “We’ve still got some…