BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Zach Veach had a plastic bucket waiting in his pit, just in case.

He’d had four intravenous fluid drips before qualifying Saturday for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by America’s First. He hadn’t eaten in more than 20 hours, nor had he slept much. He looked weak and pale while sitting on the pit wall. But he smiled, because he’d just qualified 11th for today’s race while recovering from a bout with food poisoning.

“I didn’t really have a choice,” Veach said with a laugh. “It’s great to be a rookie, but you don’t want to make any excuses that someone will be able to use to fill your seat. I just did as much as I could off the track to prepare me for the two short sessions.”

Veach ate around 7:30 p.m. Friday. Shortly after, he became ill. He was awake and ill most of the night, then did his best to rehydrate. Still weak but able to drive, he made it through the final practice session Saturday morning, then the first round of qualifying.

In the second round, he recorded a lap of 1 minute, 7.9894 seconds (121.784 mph) in the No. 26 Group One Thousand One Andretti Autosport Honda, good for a sixth-row starting spot.

Had he not been ill, Veach said he might have been able to make it into the Firestone Fast Six.

“That’s kind of what hurt me,” he said. “I put everything I had into that one lap, and then my body was pretty much over whatever I was trying to tell it to do.”

The IV treatments – one in his left arm and three in his right – helped Veach rehydrate. He never questioned whether he would drive and powered through 17 laps during the morning practice session.

“I love what I’m doing,” said Veach, a 23-year-old from Stockdale, Ohio, the Verizon IndyCar Series rookie who’ll compete in just his sixth race today and finished fourth last week at Long Beach. “I didn’t want to lose any of the momentum we had from Long Beach. Things are stepping in the right direction, sick or healthy. We keep making the improvements. These guys deserve that.”

And the plan now?

“The main thing is to get a lot of rest and get some food in my system,” Veach said. “I’ll be leaving here shortly, and it’ll be bed rest until (race) morning.”

The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama is the fourth of 17 races on the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. Coverage of the 90-lap race begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.