Jack Harvey is without his IndyCar cockpit in the team of Bobby Rahal – Replacement driver for oval in St. Louis is fixed, for circuits Portland and Laguna Seca not yet
Jack Harvey is currently without an IndyCar cockpit. The Briton, who joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) from Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) in the winter of 2021/22, has been released three races before the end of his second season with the Rahal team.
Team owner Bobby Rahal confirms the separation saying, “On behalf of RLL, I would like to thank Jack Harvey for all his efforts over the past year and a half. He has given his all to the team but for whatever reason we have not been able to get the results that he or the team deserved. We wish him all the best for the future.”
In a head-to-head comparison with his two teammates Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard, Harvey clearly performed worst in both the full 2022 season and the 14 races held so far in the 2023 season.
While Graham Rahal, the son of Bobby Rahal, finished the 2022 season in P11 overall and Lundgaard finished 14th in the standings as the rookie with the most points, Harvey did not finish higher than P22 in the final overall standings.
In 2023, the picture is very similar. At the time of parting ways with the team, however, Harvey is once again only 22nd in the points standings, while Rahal is 14th and Lundgaard is even in the top 10 of the standings in eighth place.
Lundgaard has already won one race and scored two poles in his second IndyCar season. Rahal drove to his first pole in six years last weekend and was narrowly relegated to P2 in the race. By contrast, in his 31 total races with the Rahal team, Harvey has only made the top 10 once, with P10 in the chaos race at Nashville 2022.
For the next IndyCar race (August 27 at the St. Louis oval), the team has unceremoniously signed Conor Daly as Harvey’s replacement. The team is yet to reveal who will be in the cockpit of the 30 Rahal Honda for the final two races of the season (Portland on September 3 and Laguna Seca on September 10.
“We will use the last three races of the season to evaluate other racing talent,” shares Bobby Rahal, adding in regards to Daly, “I’m very pleased that Conor has agreed to race in St. Louis. He has been strong there in the past. I feel he can help the team along by putting in another strong performance.”
As for Jack Harvey, his highlight in a year and a half with the Rahal team, besides the aforementioned tenth-place finish in Nashville in 2022, was successfully qualifying for the Indy 500 of the current 2023 IndyCar season, the very qualification he achieved in dramatic fashion in a head-to-head duel against teammate Graham Rahal. What the future holds for Harvey is currently open.
