The service of youth

The young man's name is Rinus VeeKay. You might want to remember it, in case it comes up again two weeks from today or beyond.

He's 20 years old and he hails from Hoofddorp in the Netherlands, and VeeKay is only his professional name. His given family name is van Kalmthout, so "VeeKay" is a professional construct meant to be more easily brand-able.

That decision looks particularly astute this morning, because Rinus VeeKay looks like it could be a brand with some legs to it.

This after VeeKay put the hometown team, Ed Carpenter Racing, on the top step of the podium at Indianapolis yesterday, and did it with a masterful drive. He went from seventh on the starting grid to the front, and then drove away from everyone to win the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the road course at IMS.

Two weeks from now he'll start the Indianapolis 500 from somewhere near the front, given EPR's penchant for qualifying well for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. And he won't be alone.

Fun fact, now that we are five races deep in the 2021 IndyCar season: Five different drivers have won the five races.

Second fun fact: Three of the five -- VeeKay, Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward -- were first-time IndyCar winners.

Third and fourth fun facts: Four of the five -- VeeKay, Palou, O'Ward and Colton Herta -- are 23 or younger. And VeeKay, Palou, and Herta are 21 or younger.

I don't know what that says about the future of IndyCar, which is always tenuous given the shaky economics of motorsport and the fragmentation of American sporting interests. There's only so much audience to go around these days, after all, and so many options from which to choose.

What I do know is this: If IndyCar does have a future, the resources are there to sustain it for years to come. And maybe more than just sustain it.

Scott Dixon is still the Jedi master of IndyCar, and Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal et al aren't going anywhere anytime soon, either. But you have to go back a ways to find a time when IndyCar not only had this depth of talent, but this depth of young talent.

Maybe the mid-'60s, when Mario Andretti and Al and Bobby Unser and Gordon Johncock were coming up. Or the late '70s/early '80s, when Rick Mears and Michael Andretti and Al Jr. emerged. Or the decade from 1980 to 1990 in total, when Mears was dominant at Indy but drivers as diverse as Al Sr., Tom Sneva, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi and Arie Luyendyk wound up taking milk baths on Memorial Day weekend.

Now it's 500 time again, and it's back home in May where it belongs. And it's harder to pick a winner now than it's ever been.

Dixon? Power? Newgarden? Takuma Sato again?

Rahal? Pagenaud? Ryan Hunter-Reay? Helio again?

Or will it be a VeeKay, a Palou, a Herta, an O'Ward -- or maybe a Jack Harvey, a James Hinchcliffe, a Scott McLaughlin, a Felix Rosenqvist?

Used to be a rule of thumb that half the field could wind up taking the checkers in the Big Five. This year you could probably make a legit case for 2/3 of the 33 starters.

That makes it hell to call this thing, of course.

And heaven for the sport itself.