One day closer to the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season and one more team to preview to share. Only 24 days from the season opener, and we are onto a team that has made some changes again. For the third consecutive season, Juncos Hollinger Racing has a new driver lineup.
The team has been stagnant ever since it became a full-time IndyCar team. Every driver who has came through JHR hits the same level. The team has never had a top fifteen finish in the championship. It has yet to win a race. Each year, JHR shows some sparks and it has a few good days, but most races see the team out of the picture, and no one looks to it as a threat.
JHR has brought in a driver that has been above its pedigree, but the question hanging over this team is can anyone outperform its current limits?
At A Glance... This team goes as far as Rinus VeeKay goes
It is pretty self explanatory. If Rinus VeeKay has a good season, Juncos Hollinger Racing is going to have a good season. If Rinus VeeKay does not have a good season, Juncos Hollinger Racing is not going to have a good season. It is black-and-white for this group, a team that has yet to have an overwhelmingly good season in IndyCar since it became a full-time entrant in 2022.
Sting Ray Robb is not going to make a difference. In his three-year career, Robb's best average finish in a season is 19.3529. He has two top ten finishes in 51 starts. Both of those results were ninth. He struggles to qualify in the top twenty. We know the limits of Robb, and he is not going to be the one carrying this team. All eyes are on VeeKay.
VeeKay has been the model of consistency over his six IndyCar seasons. He has never finished better than 12th in the championship, but he has also never finished worse than 14th. In four of those seasons he has had a podium finish. In five of those seasons he has had at least one top five result, and he has been doing it with mid-level equipment. Let’s not forget, he does have a race victory though it came nearly five years ago.
Ed Carpenter Racing has not been a regular contender for a decade, but VeeKay was the best driver every year he was there. An argument could be made VeeKay went to the worst team in IndyCar, or charitably the least-resourced team in IndyCar in Dale Coyne Racing, and he competed in the top ten and fought for top five finishes. At Toronto, he was in the conversation for victory. VeeKay can get the most out of a race car. The question will be how much is there in JHR's machines?
We have seen JHR have good days, but those are seldom, and we see its drivers struggle to be average. Every driver seems to have a good day or two. Callum Ilott had a few top five finishes and had some good qualifying runs. Romain Grosjean had a few good races and scored a top five at Laguna Seca. Conor Daly got the most out of the car on ovals and scored JHR's its best result, its lone podium finish, but all those results were uncommon, and most weeks these three drivers were struggling to break into the top fifteen.
This will now be VeeKay's battle, and while he has been able to pull out more top ten finishes than others in similar equipment, there comes a point where the cars are just not there for good results on a regular basis. JHR can put the pieces together for a race or two, but most weekends it looks like the team is fighting from behind. It is fighting just to get firmly in the middle of IndyCar and not be stuck toward the back.
VeeKay worked some impressive magic last year at Dale Coyne Racing. The last driver hired for the 2025 season, he was the toast of the series for the first half of the season, and it briefly looked like he could sneak into the championship top ten. It was a tougher end to the season, but VeeKay took a team that did not finish better than 13th all season in 2024 and showed it could be competitive. Not that it was a surprise considering we have seen Coyne be competitive before, but nobody was expecting that big of a leap for Coyne.
Can VeeKay replicate that form at JHR? The team has never had a driver finish in the top fifteen of the championship, and VeeKay has never finished outside the top fifteen. One of those streaks will end this year.
2025 Juncos Hollinger Racing Review
Wins: 0
Best Finish: 5th (Nashville)
Poles: 0
Best Start: 2nd (Iowa I)
Championship Finishes: 18th (Conor Daly), 25th (Sting Ray Robb)
Rinus VeeKay - #76 JHR Chevrolet
Numbers to Remember:
16.04: Combined average finish of Callum Ilott, Romain Grosjean and Conor Daly at Juncos Hollinger Racing13.91753: VeeKay's career average finish
4.75: Juncos Hollinger Racing's average number of top ten finishes in a season since 2022
5.333: VeeKay's average number of top ten finishes in a season
What is the best possible outcome?
VeeKay can have seven or eight top ten finishes, though none are all that impressive, but they are good results, and even when he is not finishing in the top ten, he is finishing in the top fifteen and scoring respectable points totals on a consistent basis. There could be a race or two where JHR has good form and VeeKay is pushing for the top five, which helps his championship total. At best, we see VeeKay match his personal best championship finish, and that is 12th. The top ten feels like it will be just out of reach, but VeeKay can firmly keep himself in the territory he has been occupying his entire career.
What is realistic?
It feels like we are about to see VeeKay's worst season in IndyCar, and it is not because of a diminished skill set or the grid improving drastically. It is a driver moving to a less successful team and at some point the pieces don't all fall in place and everything becomes more difficult. Even when Romain Grosjean had six top ten finishes for the team in 2024, he was 17th in the championship, and Grosjean had only two retirements that season, one of which was for a gearbox issue in the season opener at St. Petersburg, and Grosjean was collected in an accident at Iowa.
Any more than five top ten finishes would be overachieving for VeeKay. Even if he does that, at best he finishes 15th, which would technically be his worst championship result in IndyCar, but it would not be a disaster or an embarrassing season for the Dutchman. It would actually be another honorable result showing he can punch above the weight of the team.
Sting Ray Robb - #77 Goodheart Animal Health Center Chevrolet
Numbers to Remember:
20.35294: Career average finish23.41176: Career average starting position
7: Top twenty starts in 2025
2: Top twenty starts for Robb in his first two seasons
What is the best possible outcome?
The best result for Sting Ray Robb would be if Prema is unable to run full-time and gifts him at least two positions in the championship. Take out some of the competition and Robb will be guaranteed an improvement no matter what happens on track in 2026. Robb is more comfortable with the car, and his qualifying form did pick up in 2025, but he is still miles from being competitive. We are never expecting him to be in the mix to get out of the first round of qualifying on a road or street course.
The limits are Robb qualifies in the top twenty in the majority of the races, he has about six finishes in the top fifteen and he has an average finish around 18th. That might sneak him into the top 20 in the championship.
What is realistic?
Robb had three top fifteen finishes last year. He was ninth at Long Beach but that included impressive tire strategy and not losing an excessive amount of time on the alternate tire.
Maybe he is in for one fortunate result a season, but it is not going to completely swing his championship. He could finish in the top 20, but 20th feels like the limit. Even if there are only 25 full-time cars, it feels like Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing improved greatly by taking DeFrancesco out for Mick Schumacher, and it seems like Dale Coyne Racing could be set for a big improvement in its second car. Even without Shwartzman, Robb was 32 points from the next driver in the championship, and that was Nolan Siegel.
Do we really think Robb is going to outscore an Arrow McLaren driver?
Someone must finish last among the full-time drivers. I think we have found our guy.
The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday March 1 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage will begin at noon Eastern.
