The back and neck pain that plagued Jack Harvey during last weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio – which carried over to new levels of pain being suffered in the cockpit of the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda on Friday and Saturday at Iowa …
The back and neck pain that plagued Jack Harvey during last weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio — which carried over to new levels of pain being suffered in the cockpit of the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda on Friday and Saturday at Iowa Speedway — has led the tough-as-nails Briton to step aside and let former Coyne driver Conor Daly complete the Hy-Vee doubleheader.
Daly, who agreed to be Harvey’s standby if such a need arose, was already in Iowa and donned Harvey’s race suit to start the cockpit fitment process at approximately 6pm ET, two hours prior to the start of the 250-lap contest Saturday night. Whatever plans the team had for Daly in Race 1 would be torpedoed by IndyCar’s Rule 4.3.3.1, which says a replacement drivers cannot go straight into a race without turning laps in the car prior to the race.
Harvey took the start, completed 28 laps, and retired in 25th place.
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With no time to hold a special session for Daly prior to Race 1 due to the concert being held on the front straight, the series scheduled a 15-minute run for the IndyCar veteran between 10:05-10:20am ET, just over two hours prior to the 12:30pm start for the 250-lap finale.
Due to the driver change for Race 2, Harvey’s starting position of 18th was forfeited and Daly, who last raced at the Indianapolis 500, will start last.
Romain Grosjean said he has apologized to Jack Harvey for nudging the Brit off the road late in Friday’s opening NTT IndyCar practice session at Barber. The incident started when the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver came upon Harvey as the Brit was …
Romain Grosjean said he has apologized to Jack Harvey for nudging the Brit off the road late in Friday’s opening NTT IndyCar practice session at Barber.
The incident started when the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver came upon Harvey as the Brit was getting the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda up to speed after exiting the pits. Grosjean expressed his irritation a few corners later by hip-checking Harvey off the track, almost snaring the trailing car of Alexander Rossi in the process.
“I went to apologize first thing after the session,” Grosjean said. “It was on me. It was the fourth lap in a row that I got blocked. I did the French move that I was complaining, but I couldn’t turn the wheel with one hand. We actually made contact, which I feel a bit embarrassed about, but it’s the honest truth. Even Alexander Rossi wouldn’t believe me, but it’s the truth.
“I wanted to push him a bit wide, showing I was not happy, but I never wanted to make contact. I just couldn’t turn the wheel. So I went to apologize.
“I think everyone got blocked. It’s just Barber. It’s probably the most physical track of the season. It’s very hot. We’re pushing the limits on the car. High-speed corners… Yeah, I’m not very proud of that moment, but I’m much more proud of our session generally.”
Grosjean ended the afternoon sixth-fastest in JHR’s No. 77 Chevrolet, 0.25s down on pacesetter Josef Newgarden.
Nolan Siegel and Jack Harvey are committed to sharing the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda throughout the season, but the team’s sister No. 51 Honda is in a different position, where most of its races do not have an assigned driver. For this weekend’s …
Nolan Siegel and Jack Harvey are committed to sharing the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda throughout the season, but the team’s sister No. 51 Honda is in a different position, where most of its races do not have an assigned driver. For this weekend’s Long Beach GP, Coyne has turned to an in-house option and nominated Harvey to step in and drive the No.18 – which had previously been assigned to Siegel – while Siegel will slide across to the No.51.
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“When Dale called me, I was scheduled to go to Long Beach and help Nolan, just as I did at Thermal, and he said, ‘Do you want to drive?’ I said, ‘Of course!’” Harvey told RACER.
“I want to do whatever I can to help the team, and I love Long Beach. I take it as a positive sign that they’ve asked me to do a race I wasn’t signed to do.”
Learning he’ll drive a few days before the event means the Briton, who turned 30 today, has been given a welcome birthday gift.
“I’m staying ready,” Harvey said. “I haven’t done any simulator prep since I wasn’t scheduled to be there, but I have been staying connected with the engineers to get ready. Having a good result would great for us.”
This story has been updated since its original publication to reflect Harvey being entered in the No.18, and Siegel in the No.51.
Dale Coyne Racing No. 18 Honda: Jack Harvey/Nolan Siegel (24th in 2023 championship/rookie) No. 51 Honda: Colin Braun/Others (rookie) THINGS TO KNOW: Major rebuild in progress An early offseason that was loaded with optimism for recruiting a top …
Dale Coyne Racing
No. 18 Honda: Jack Harvey/Nolan Siegel (24th in 2023 championship/rookie)
No. 51 Honda: Colin Braun/Others (rookie)
THINGS TO KNOW:
Major rebuild in progress
An early offseason that was loaded with optimism for recruiting a top Formula 2 talent and those who would come with an influx of funding has not panned out for the spirited team from Illinois.
Efforts to find drivers to pilot both cars has been a painstakingly long and setback-filled process, and to that end, three days before cars are on track for the season opener, the Coyne team finally confirmed its lineup for St. Petersburg.
In 2024, the team’s composition will look far more like an IMSA program with 2-3 drivers rotating through both entries, and that’s not what we’re accustomed to seeing with Coyne. Jack Harvey is in for most of the races in the No. 18 Honda, but not all, as rising American Indy NXT talent Nolan Siegel is plugged in for four races, including the Indianapolis 500, in preparation for going full-time next year.
Nolan Siegel will have four chances to make a rookie impression in IndyCar this year with DCR, including the Indy 500. Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment
Colin Braun is finally getting his shot in IndyCar with the No. 51 Honda, but for how many races? He’s in for St. Petersburg and The Thermal Club, but who’ll get the nod at Long Beach, Barber, and so on? Braun isn’t bringing funding to the party, and while his schedule isn’t completely open due to IMSA LMP2 and SRO GT3 obligations, he could drive for Coyne at most events if there’s a need.
The revolving door within Coyne’s engineering group is another area that’s made it hard for the team to make year-to-year progress. Ross Bunnell led the team’s engineering efforts in 2022 and looked after David Malukas in the No. 18 Honda, but he was hired away by Chip Ganassi Racing to become Scott Dixon’s race engineer last season. His replacement was engineering assistant, Alex Athanasiadis, who was promoted to full race engineer, and he and Malukas did well together.
And then Athanasiadis recently left to work for Roger Penske as a race engineer on the Porsche Penske Motorsport FIA WEC team, so another engineering reboot was required. Don Bricker, who has run Coyne’s second car, the No. 51 Honda, as its race engineer, has been moved over to the No. 18, and like its drivers, it took until the final days of the offseason for the team to hire an engineer to run its second car. Racing veteran Steve Newey is headed to St. Pete to engineer Braun and he brings plenty of knowledge from CART, the ALMS, and managed Bryan Herta’s IndyCar team during the early years of the DW12 formula.
Thanks to the engineering turnover, Coyne has not been able to invest in the kinds of offseason R&D projects it’s accustomed to carrying out, and that means it will start well behind the other nine teams in that regard. Where the race to win in 2024 began for most teams in the days after the Sept. 10 season finale in Monterey, Coyne’s operation is having to start that process now, on the cusp of the new championship run.
It’s everything they didn’t want to happen, but it’s their reality.
The Mitch effect
Despite all of the aforementioned obstacles to clear, Coyne hired the right person to rebuild the team in Mitch Davis, who led the outfit to its first win many years ago and has vast experience running IndyCar and IMSA teams.
Davis steps in for Terry Brown, who managed the team in recent years but has embraced semi-retirement while consulting for Coyne. In Davis, the team has a focused leader who folks tend to gravitate towards, and while it’s been a rough offseason in so many ways, he’s pushed for Coyne to hire Braun and attracted some good new crew members to complement the loyal veterans.
Davis is the right guy to take the baton from Brown, and although we won’t see it in the beginning of the championship, I do expect him to round the program into shape and make it better in many ways. There’s also no doubt that Davis has a hellacious amount of work ahead to get Coyne up to speed.
A callback jor Jack
Harvey’s formative years in IndyCar were spent with the part-time, single-car Meyer Shank Racing team where he delivered his best performances. It’s here where the 30-year-old from England could hold significant value within the underprepared Coyne program as it attempts to settle itself and take on its rivals in the bottom half of the field.
Harvey was asked to do more than just drive when he was with MSR, and if Coyne welcomes his input on the engineering, strategy, and operational sides, it could help to accelerate their progress. Doing more with less was common for Harvey in those early days, and if he can tap into his approach that helped MSR to shine, it’s possible for similar things to happen with his new team.
The gamer
For Braun, the 35-year-old’s introduction to IndyCar racing is a proverbial baptism by fire. But he’s a gamer, among the most experienced drivers within the IndyCar paddock, and has spent most of his teens and adult life jumping from one radically different car to another. And that’s why he’s accepted the offer to race for Coyne with a single day of experience in these cars. Sure, it’s a daunting situation, but this is the right guy for such a crazy proposition.
The Texan has raced everywhere — the high banks at Talladega to Le Mans to the Nurburgring to Road America — and because of his non-stop career, there’s a well-refined comfort that lives within Braun when it comes to taking on wild things like lining up to race against IndyCar’s best after one day spent at Sebring in a DW12.
Braun was faster than Harvey at that test, which isn’t a dig at his teammate. It just confirmed for the umpteenth time that Braun can be thrown into anything and impress in an instant.
Where Coyne goes with the No. 51 in April and beyond is a point of interest. Ketherine Legge, a favorite of Honda who drove for Coyne in Champ Car in 2007, is said to have the No. 51 for the Indy 500 and other ovals, but the identity of who’ll steer the car for most of the unassigned races is a mystery.
Even so…
When a driver and their race engineer are meeting for the first time in the paddock at the opening round, expectations must be lowered to match the situation they’re in. Drawing from all we’ve covered so far, the Coyne team should be slowest in every session and again in this weekend’s race.
Even so, be open to the possibility of Braun or Harvey delivering beyond the confines of their circumstances.
Will the sports car champion hurl the No. 51 into the Fast 12 on Saturday? Not unless miracles are involved. But if he’s anything other than last, Coyne and Company will deserve all the beer and balloons that can fit in their paddock space. The same goes for Harvey, who has the experience to run higher than last, but can only go as fast as his underdeveloped car will allow.
From the 10 teams that make up the field of 27 cars, this is the one — and the only one — that has a giant caveat placed over every aspect of its season. From management to engineering to drivers, it’s a fresh start and it’s a late start. Be kind when they struggle and cheer when they don’t.
Coyne will likely be among his team’s biggest sponsors this season, and that alone deserves respect. Hope for a better 2025 starts now.
Dale Coyne Racing will use NTT IndyCar Series veteran Jack Harvey and IMSA champion Colin Braun to conduct the final pre-season test of the year in his Nos. 18 and 51 entries. The two-day test, which runs across Monday and Tuesday at Sebring …
Dale Coyne Racing will use NTT IndyCar Series veteran Jack Harvey and IMSA champion Colin Braun to conduct the final pre-season test of the year in his Nos. 18 and 51 entries.
The two-day test, which runs across Monday and Tuesday at Sebring International Raceway’s short course, has the entire field onsite to shakedown and tune their 2024-specification Dallara DW12s before the March 8-10 season opener two hours northwest in St. Petersburg.
For Harvey, his use at Sebring is a continuation of the testing he conducted for DCR in the No. 18 Honda at the Homestead-Miami roval in January. For the 35-year-old Braun, it marks his first appearance in an Indy car after turning pro at the age of 16 in 2005 at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
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A three-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title winner and three-time winner of the Rolex 24, Braun caught the attention of IndyCar team owners during the most recent IMSA season where he partnered with Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 hybrid GTP car.
Braun’s speed and consistency alongside Blomqvist, the 2022 IMSA DPi champion who was signed by MSR to drive this season in IndyCar, often equaled or exceeded his teammate and led to at least one other IndyCar team taking a look at the Texan.
RACER expects Harvey to be confirmed for St. Petersburg and other races in the No. 18. The outcome of Braun’s IndyCar testing debut on Tuesday will likely dictate whether he will get the nod to race the No. 51 at round one. With full-time commitments in multiple sports car series, Braun’s availability to compete for DCR would be subject to his availability after St. Petersburg. As of Friday, the team had its engineering staff set for Harvey’s No. 18 but was unable to confirm who would engineer the No. 51, which could be the reason behind running Harvey on day one and Braun on day two instead of testing both cars at the same time.
Among the other drivers who are anticipated to be part of DCR’s rotating cast in 2024, RACER understands open-wheel veteran Katherine Legge and Indy NXT title challenger Nolan Siegel are in play. Former A.J. Foyt Racing driver Benjamin Pedersen has also been mentioned as a possibility for DCR to use.
With transporters due to move into the St. Petersburg paddock in four weeks’ time, the clock continues to wind down on the launch of a new season while Dale Coyne Racing – the last NTT IndyCar Series team to declare its 2024 drivers – works to fill …
With transporters due to move into the St. Petersburg paddock in four weeks’ time, the clock continues to wind down on the launch of a new season while Dale Coyne Racing — the last NTT IndyCar Series team to declare its 2024 drivers — works to fill its roster.
Nine of IndyCar’s 10 full-time teams have signed and declared their drivers for the upcoming season, and according to the veteran team owner who runs his two-car program out of Plainfield, Illinois, their identities could be known in a matter of days.
“We tested Jack Harvey and Nolan Siegel down in Homestead, and we’ve had Jack in the simulator this week and that went really, really well,” Coyne told RACER. “We learned a lot about him and that was pretty interesting. But is there anything finalized yet? No, but we’re very close, I would say. By the middle of next week, I think we’ll know exactly where we’re at.”
Coyne had a pair of young drivers last year with David Malukas, who left for Arrow McLaren, and Sting Ray Robb, who departed for A.J. Foyt Racing, which has presented DCR with a range of options on which direction to take his program.
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In previous seasons, Coyne often paired a veteran with a rookie, which could make someone like Harvey, who made his IndyCar debut in 2017, a prime candidate to consider for one of the seats. Coyne also prefers to have his drivers bring some funding to offset annual operating expenses for the car which, in Harvey’s case, could come with the need for the Briton to raise a few million dollars to offer the team.
For Siegel, his plans are already set for 2024 with HMD Motorsports in the Indy NXT series where he’s expected to vie for the championship during his sophomore season, but if the rumors are true, the teenage Californian could already be scheduled for his IndyCar debut with DCR in 2025.
Although Coyne wouldn’t be drawn on the topic, he was clearly impressed by Siegel’s performance during his first IndyCar test.
“It was a very pleasant surprise,” he said. “It reminded me of when we tested with Danial Frost, and then he went out and beat Marcus Armstrong and Juri Vips, and we said, ‘What the hell have we got here?’ Nolan goes out and beats [Scott] McLaughlin and [Romain] Grosjean, and you go, ‘Wow, what’s this?’ And it’s not like those guys weren’t trying. He didn’t get weak or tired in the car. He didn’t get worn out mentally in the car, so we liked that.”
Recent speculation regarding a part-time return to DCR for Takuma Sato was recently put to rest, but the concept of Coyne splitting one of his entries between an oval specialist like the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and a dedicated road racer continues to make the rounds. Drivers from Formula 2 to IMSA have been on the team’s radar, but as is often the case with DCR in the final stage of the offseason, there’s a bit of intrigue and mystery surrounding who will race for the team.
Coyne says the field of candidates has been narrowed, and with the season almost upon us, the 26th and 27th full-time entries will soon have names attached to both cars for the 17-race championship.
“Most people know what they’re going to do this year now,” he added. “So it’s quieted back down, which is OK because we’ve still got plenty of serious people looking at us, so it’s all good.”
IndyCar driver Jack Harvey joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to break down qualifying for the NTT IndyCar Series at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca before polesitter Felix Rosenqvist’s race strategist Billy Vincent and Arrow McLaren team boss Gavin Ward …
IndyCar driver Jack Harvey joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to break down qualifying for the NTT IndyCar Series at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca before polesitter Felix Rosenqvist’s race strategist Billy Vincent and Arrow McLaren team boss Gavin Ward share insights on their run to P1 with the Swede.
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In his first full season of IndyCar racing, Jack Harvey produced six top 10s from 14 races with Meyer Shank Racing, which was good enough to claim 15 th in the 2020 championship. The following year Harvey improved, earning six more top 10s – …
In his first full season of IndyCar racing, Jack Harvey produced six top 10s from 14 races with Meyer Shank Racing, which was good enough to claim 15th in the 2020 championship.
The following year Harvey improved, earning six more top 10s — including a pair of fourths – and fired the No. 60 Honda into the Firestone Fast Six on three occasions, which helped the Briton to climb to 13th in the standings. From there, the call from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and signing of a two-year contract led to a downturn in fortunes for Harvey and MSR, as both have struggled to rediscover their form from 2021.
As MSR heads into a heavy reboot for 2024 where an all-new driver lineup is anticipated, Harvey is also on the hunt for a new team to demonstrate his skills after he and RLL split after the August 11 Brickyard Grand Prix. For the 30-year-old, the new mission is to show the paddock that the guy who qualified on the front row three times and stood on the podium for MSR is still here and ready to perform.
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“I’m actively looking for more opportunities to stay in IndyCar because I love this, and it’s the best job — and I hesitate to even call it a ‘job’ — and this is the profession and privilege I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid,” Harvey told RACER.
“I was extremely proud of the job we did at Meyer Shank, and even prouder when RLL asked me to join their team, but it didn’t work out for either of us, and while I would have preferred to finish out the season, I’m at peace with the direction we’ve gone. I can’t sugarcoat things; that’s not who I am, and of course we’re disappointed in how things went, but I really do believe that if I can get back into the right situation, that we can be competitive because we’ve done that before.”
Harvey worked with something like four different engineers while at RLL, which added to the challenge, but as he’s seen demonstrated by Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo who went through a similar disappointing stint with a bigger team, there’s hope for a turnaround ahead.
“I truly enjoyed the David and Goliath thing being with Meyer Shank as a one-car team, one of the smaller teams at that time, and we were pretty consistently in the thick of it,” Harvey said. “I know that’s still possible for me, and If I didn’t believe I could, I’m honest enough with myself to say so, but I’ve no doubt I can do what I’ve done before.
“And I’m human; I’m not made of stone. The last two years have been very difficult. And I’ve gone through emotions and struggles that I haven’t had to before, but you find out who you are in your heart and if you’ve got the strength to push through, which I do. And I’m not comparing myself to Daniel Ricciardo, but I see a lot of similarities in his time at McLaren which was a struggle almost from the outset, and now he’s back in a situation that better works for him and he’s doing well. To have the success that you need at the top level, things have to click and you have to find that groove, which he has. And I’ve had that before, so I’m looking for it again.”
Although a return to MSR isn’t in the works, Harvey is actively hunting leads at other IndyCar teams to ensure his seven years in the series becomes an eighth.
“The priority really is just trying to find a place that I can integrate into the team that hopefully want me to be there, that remembers all the good we did in 2020 and ‘21,” he said. “I do love racing in this series because it’s the best in the world, and it’s absolutely where I want to be.”
The long-rumored split between Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and its beleaguered driver Jack Harvey has been confirmed. Harvey, who joined RLL in its expanded third entry in 2022, will not contest the final three races of the season as RLL both …
The long-rumored split between Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and its beleaguered driver Jack Harvey has been confirmed. Harvey, who joined RLL in its expanded third entry in 2022, will not contest the final three races of the season as RLL both evaluates new talent and does its best to earn one of the lucrative Leaders Circle contracts with the No. 30 Honda formerly driven by the Briton.
Conor Daly will pilot the car at the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval, and while only Daly has been named, RACER understands Toby Sowery and Juri Vips are strong contenders to make appearances at Portland and Monterey.
“First, I would like to thank Jack Harvey for all of his efforts on behalf of RLL for the last year and a half.,” said RLL co-owner Bobby Rahal. “He committed fully to the team but for whatever reason, we weren’t able to achieve the results that he or the team deserves and we wish him well in the future.
“We will use the final three races of the season to gauge other racing talent. I’m very pleased that Conor has agreed to join us in St. Louis. He’s been strong there and I feel that he can bring value to the team while also providing us with a strong effort. I look forward to having him with us.”
For Daly, an oval specialist, a solid run at WWTR could pull the No. 30 Honda, which sits 23rd in Entrants’ points, into the top 22 where the $910,000 Leaders Circle contracts are offered by the series.
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“It means a lot to have a chance to drive for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team,” Daly said. “I’ve known Bobby ever since I was a child, our families are very close. Mike Lanigan is someone that has known my dad for a long time, and I’ve known him well too. And David Letterman is a friend of our family as well so it’s very special to have the chance to drive for this organization.
“I will obviously do the best job that I can for them to make them proud and make their partners proud and I hope to be able to deliver everything they are looking for. I’m excited for the chance to get back behind the wheel at one of my favorite tracks at World Wide Technology Raceway.”
IndyCar announced a six-position starting grid penalty for three series entries – the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda driven by Helio Castroneves, the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda of David Malukas and the No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan …
IndyCar announced a six-position starting grid penalty for three series entries — the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda driven by Helio Castroneves, the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda of David Malukas and the No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda driven by Jack Harvey — for unapproved engine changes following last week’s race at Nashville.
The named teams were in violation of Rule 16.2.3.2: “A fifth Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.”
The specified penalty for violation of this rule is a six-position starting grid penalty on road and street course events and nine positions at oval events and will be served at the series’ next event, which is Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
