Indianapolis, ind. (18 May 2021) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) completed its first official day of Indianapolis 500 practice on Tuesday. MSR – which will be entering its fifth consecutive Indianapolis 500 – comes into the week of preparation for the first time with its two-car assault .
MSR veteran, Jack Harvey will continue his Indianapolis 500 hunt in the No. 60 AutoNation/ SiriusXM Honda. While new to MSR but certainly not new to the Indy 500, Helio Castroneves will make his MSR debut in the No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda as he looks to claim his fourth victory in the 105th Running of the iconic race.
With practice opening at 10:00am on Tuesday, Harvey wasn’t able to take to the track right away after unfortunately got off to a slow start when the team diagnosed as issue with the engine following the install lap. But quickly getting to work, the team replaced the No. 60 Honda engine in just three-hours time, and Harvey was sent back out into afternoon practice. Harvey closed out the day 30th and posted his fastest speed of 222.113 mph.
Castroneves was fast right off the bat with the team right on target during the morning’s two hour ‘oval veterans’ session. Although onboard a new car and sporting a new color suit, Castroneves showed no rust as he clocked in 63 total laps and finished out the day 22 with a fast lap speed of 223.059 mph.
INDYCAR practice will continue through the week with open practice set for 12:00pm – 6:00pm. Live streaming will be available on Peacock TV or on SiriusXM Ch. 205.
Driver Quotes:
Jack Harvey: “I think we made good progress throughout the day. It’s always hard on a day like today to see how everyone shakes out. I don’t think the time sheet necessarily reflected how we were at the end of the day. I was just happy that the car got back out on track and that we made progress on the race car.”
Helio Castroneves: “This is the first official day with Meyer Shank Racing and I thought it went really well. We collected a lot of data today and that was the goal. We were able to get through our program, and found some areas that we can improve on to get us through the rest of the week. As of right now the speed may not be up there, but we are focusing on a lot of things and hopefully that will translate at the end of the week. The AutoNation / SiriusXM car, it was good and it’s always great to be back at the Indianapolis 500.”