Harvey advances to fifth in INDYCAR Championship following Saturday’s result
Fort Worth, Texas (1 May 2021) – Jack Harvey showed impressive pace on Saturday for Race 1 of the INDYCAR weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. A seventh place finish in the Genesys 300 advanced Meyer Shank Racing and the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda to fifth in the championship points standings with three rounds of racing in the books.
Quick weekends at Texas Motor Speedway seem to be the trend since Meyer Shank Racing and Harvey made his debut at the 1.5-mile oval last year. What was supposed to be Practice, Qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday soon turned to just a single practice session ahead of Race 1 due to a potential weather system threatening the area.
Closing out a 90-minute practice session on Saturday afternoon P15, the focus quickly turned to preparing the No. 60 Honda for the Genesys 300. With qualifying cancelled and now determined by championship points, Harvey rolled off of the grid sixth for the start of the race.
At the drop of the green flag, Harvey got a strong jump and made a fast pass for fifth. It only took the first 10 laps for Harvey to start gaining ground on fourth place. As the first pit window started closing in, Harvey was hot on the tails of P4. At a track that is notoriously difficult to pass at, Harvey made the pass for third and ran in podium contention going into the first pit stop on lap 64.
Harvey ran strong as the team opted to stay out longer going into the second pit stop in hopes of gaining additional positions. Unfortunately, the No. 60 fell to eighth following the second stop, but Harvey put his head down and moved back up to seventh just a few laps later.
The final stop saw the MSR crew make a lightning quick stop which put Harvey two positions ahead once returning to track. The final 25 laps were a dash to the finish which, in the end, saw Harvey cross the line seventh. The top ten result puts Harvey fifth in the championship standings which is also where he will start Sunday’s XPEL 375.
“I thought today went really well, at times we looked really good and at others I think we had some things to work through,” said Harvey. “We had a small issue with the shift lights in the car, so restarts were a bit tricky. The No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda is pretty quick around here. The biggest thing for us is the level of improvement compared to a year ago, it’s just massive. I’m so grateful for Meyer Shank Racing and the effort they put in and now we’ll just try to do better tomorrow.”
Race 2 for the Texas Motor Speedway double-header race weekend is set for 6:00pm ET on Sunday with live coverage on NBCSN. IndyCar Radio coverage will also be on SiriusXM Ch. 205.
