Jack Harvey pledged to 'keep digging away' following 15th place finish in Nashville

Frustrating race for IndayCar driver...
Jack Harvey.Jack Harvey.
Jack Harvey.

As one of the most highly anticipated races on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar, Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) drivers Jack Harvey and Helio Castroneves battled a tight race course and 90-degree temperatures through 80 tough laps in the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sunday.

After showing considerable pace from the start of the weekend, Bassingham's Harvey brought the No 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda home 15th, his teamnmate coming home ninth.

What was a nearly three-hour race, it quickly became a race of survival and a test to have the cleanest car at the end of the 80-lap event.

Seven caution periods and two red flags made for teams having to strategize on the fly to end up at the front of the field.

After starting from sixth, Harvey kept the No 60 Honda well within the top 10 through the first 22 laps.

Harvey was the first of the leaders to pit on lap 22 to swap over to Firestone primary tires and take fuel.

Following a fourth caution on Lap 31, Harvey raced back up to the top ten to sit eighth with 40 laps to go.

Harvey raced up to fourth just after the halfway mark, but after pitting on lap 52, he and several surrounding cars were caught out by the proceeding yellow flag and were shuffled to the back of the field. Harvey advanced two position during the final laps of the race to finish 15th.

"We qualified pretty well, and I don’t know what we have to do to find a result on Sunday," Harvey said.

"We started sixth and somehow finished 15th.

"I’ve really enjoyed racing in Nashville, it’s such an awesome city and I’m excited to come back.

"That was probably the most amount of yellows I’ve ever seen in a race before, but we’ll keep digging away here. I have to thank everyone on the SiriusXM / AutoNation Honda because we’ve still got five races to get it done.”

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