St. Louis, MO (21 August 2021) – After two and a half hours of racing and five yellow flags that saw a quarter of the field retiring from the race, the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway became a survival of the fittest on Saturday night.
But battling through to the finish was Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) driver Jack Harvey, who came home with a tenth following 260 laps of all out racing.
The fast paced schedule of a steamy one-day show required focus, stamina and patience as the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 got underway on Saturday with a one-day race formant that saw practice, qualifying, and then the race all staged in one day. With scorching temperatures adding to the challenge for both driver and team, preparation and execution came to the fore.
Harvey and the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM crew made big gains from practice to qualifying after Harvey posted a 178.090 mph lap to place him 15th at the start of the race.
With 260 laps of racing to go, the Bommarito 500 got off to an unusually slow start with three caution periods within the first 20 laps. But Harvey kept his nose clean to push the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda up to 10th by lap 17.
Following the fourth caution period, the race got into a rhythm which saw Harvey make his way to sixth at the halfway point. With 100 laps to go, Harvey’s No. 60 Honda sat 13th in the order as a range of fuel strategies developed late in the race. With Harvey managing consumption, he was still able to race to sixth before making his final stop on lap 198.
A fifth and final yellow slowed the field, setting up a 59 lap sprint to the finish with Harvey coming home tenth- his best finish of the 2021 INDYCAR season so far.
“It was a great race,” said Harvey. “That last yellow really hurt us and without it, I think that we could have finished fifth or sixth. We made good progress throughout the day. Everyone on pit lane was great and our strategy worked well for us. It’s been a good two weekends in a row and hopefully we can take this with us to Portland in a few weeks.”
MSR will have a weekend off before returning to action along the west coast, starting with Portland International on Sept. 10-12.
