(Image: Stephen Conley / TPF)
After the surprising win by Helio Castroneves in the Meyer-Shank Racing Honda at Indianapolis, a trip home can only make the team more excited.
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has featured the NTT IndyCar Series for the last 16 years. For Mike Shank, co-owner of Meyer-Shank Racing, this is home for his race team. Shank houses his two IndyCar teams, as of 2021, in Pataskala, Ohio, a mere 45 minutes south of the Lexington, Ohio road course.
The driver of the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda, Jack Harvey, is at home at Mid-Ohio as well. Harvey’s first-ever win in North America came in the Indy Lights series in 2014.
Harvey has been unable to reach victory lane so far, but he hopes to change that in the Honda 200. Harvey has been one of the best qualifiers in IndyCar in 2021, averaging a 9.8 series start. Unfortunately, for Harvey and the MSR team, the old saying, “If not for bad luck, we wouldn’t have any at all,” has almost become the team motto. Every type of issue that can hamper a race team has hit the No. 60 team this season.
Potential is There
Before heading to Mid-Ohio, Harvey said, “I look at our season in the whole and think it’s got so much potential there.” Harvey and his No. 60 team rank 14th in the points entering this week. Harvey added, “Like, we’re really on pace and where we’ve been running this year, if things had gone a bit better we really could be top seven in points.”
Heading into this weekend’s race at Mid-Ohio, strategy has been the name of the game for the Meyer-Shank Racing team. Harvey said, “We’ve tried every strategy available to us, and to make it work, we need one thing to happen. Every time it’s backfired on us. I’m just ready for a clean, normal race.”
Harvey continued, “I would say we don’t often repeat mistakes. But, we have an uncanny ability to find new ones. I’m hoping that we kind of stop doing,”
Both Mike Shank and his driver, Jack Harvey, have optimism heading into this race. The team has had the pace to run with the leaders.
They are especially optimistic at home at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
