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SPEEDWAY, Ind. — In front of around 25,000 socially distant fans, Rinus Veekay led 33 laps en route to his first career win in the NTT IndyCar Series on Saturday in taking the checkered flag at the GMR Grand Prix.

The win is also Ed Carpenter Racing’s first win since 2016.

“The car was amazing,” Veekay said. “Very good in the long run! The start was great and had a great ability to pass other cars. The strategy was great by the team, so everything was just on it.”

Veekay is now the youngest winner in the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 20 years, 10 months old.

He showed signs of having a good day after dropping the fastest speed in race trim in the morning’s warm-up session.

Romain Grosjean, a rookie who secured his first pole in just his third ever IndyCar Series race, led the race’s first stint before green flag pitstops. Tire strategy played a factor as Grosjean started on the faster red tires while Veekay, who started seventh, started on slower black tires.

Veekay would take over the lead with slightly better pitstops and running quicker laps than the rest of the field, especially in his final stint on red tires. He finished the day with the fastest lap of the race.

Grosjean came home second, securing his first podium finish in his young IndyCar career.

He said he has had a lot of help and support in seeing this much success so early in his career, having come from running in Formula One last season, but also having run other series of formula style cars, he has been able to change things up before.

“You actually learn to adapt and change your driving style,” Grosjean said. “I still think that sometimes I need to understand a little bit more to go fast in IndyCar. But, everyone has been really helpful and I’m loving it.”

Alex Palou came home third for his second podium of the season. Josef Newgarden was fourth and Graham Rahal rounded out the top five.

See the official results

The finish was big for Newgarden despite starting second. He and Palou finished several spots ahead of championship leader Scott Dixon, which finished a lackluster ninth.

Palou has slimmed the margin between him and Dixon atop the points standings. Newgarden, after a terrible start to the season, has climbed to third.

Next on the schedule is the Indianapolis 500, where not only double points are up for grabs, but also a place in history as well.