IndyCar gamble fails to pay off for Bassingham’s Jack Harvey

Harvey charged up to second place on the first lap of the IndyCar race at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Sunday.

It lead to his Meyer Shank Racing team changing strategy midway through the race in favour of a bold fuel strategy call on lap 34.

“Today was a tough day and definitely not the result that we had hoped for,” said Harvey.

“We had a really great start and our pace on reds was pretty good. I know the guys on the stand were playing out different scenarios to get us back to the top.

“We made a strategy call and I had to save a ton of fuel at the end of the race. But unfortunately the strategy didn’t play out how we had hoped, which is pretty unfortunate considering the pace that we had all weekend.”

Starting from third, Harvey took advantage of a good jump on the start and made the pass for second going into turn one. Harvey held second place through his first fuel stint before a lap 13 pit stop.

Harvey reentered the track fourth and continued his battle up front. Despite staying in the top ten, three yellow flag periods slowed Harvey’s charge back to podium position, with the team looking to take a different approach back to the front by electing to pit on lap 34 with a bold call on fuel strategy.

With the race having generated so many caution periods, the team had reason to anticipate that more would follow, allowing the strategy to pay dividends for Harvey at the checkered flag.

But after losing ground to fuel save, it was too little too late when a lone yellow came late in the race as Harvey put his head down to come home a disappointed 17th.

Meyer Shank Racing will be in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar action next weekend at Watkins Glen International for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.