Jack Harvey will attempt to qualify for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports.
Harvey, a veteran of 93 career starts, was a part-time driver this past NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, competing in 14 of the 17 races for Dale Coyne Racing. The Indianapolis 500 wasn’t one of them.
Englishman Harvey, 31, returns in hopes of making his eighth “500” start May 25 in a role-reversal scenario of 2024. It’s his only scheduled start of the 2025 season at this point.
“The singular focus, everything for us revolves around this,” Harvey said. “It's very much all eggs in one basket. Sometimes that's how you get stuff done. We go in there, know what we're doing, united and rally behind a common goal.”
Harvey doesn’t hide the fact his last few “500” attempts were a struggle. He was the slowest of 32 qualifiers driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2022. Cusick Motorsports’ Stefan Wilson suffered a mechanical issue during practice and didn’t make a qualifying attempt since there were 33 cars vying for 33 spots, relegating him to a last-place start for the race. That left Harvey with the slowest four-lap average in the field.
In 2023, Harvey bumped RLL teammate Graham Rahal in the closing seconds for the 33rd and final spot into the race as the final and slowest qualifier of the Bump Day session.
Last season, Harvey didn’t have an opportunity to compete at Indy and helped DCR teammates Katherine Legge and rookie Nolan Siegel attempt to make the show. Being on the sidelines and not in a race car was a different experience from which Harvey seeks to grow.
“Not being a part of the race was a killer, honestly,” Harvey said. “You're there for essentially two weeks, then watching everyone participate.
“I'll be the first person to say I think I'm extremely lucky in life. No doubt we work hard for the opportunities we have. No one should feel bad for us in any of that capacity. I get to do this as a job. I don't have to do this. I keep that perspective with me all the time.
“But I would say when you can go to the track and you're not under that pressure, I think you can see how insular your day and your week can become, that level of tunnel vision that starts to creep in. At least you've got to make lemons out of lemonade. I still thought it was cool to be at the track and kind of observe.
“I think the biggest thing going and being there, not under pressure at least for last month, I think was the ability to step away and continue to do the big picture on what we're trying to achieve across Indy. It's not just one day; it might be across several days. The plan, how you get there, really having respect for the process.
“I think how I was able to help Katherine and Nolan in that moment was bringing a level of calm, which is also something I'd like to roll into next year. It's not my first ‘500’ now. I understand the flow of the month and how it goes. I feel like I use that time productively even if I wasn't in the car.”
That mindset and how DRR/Cusick Motorsports has prepared fast race cars in recent Months of May have Harvey brimming with confidence for a potential breakout at Indy. This was a meticulous effort. Harvey was drawn to DRR/Cusick because of a proper shot of winning the race and reblazing his path in the series.
2014 “500” winner Ryan Hunter-Reay was also named Dec. 4 as Harvey’s Indy 500 teammate. Hunter-Reay qualified 12th for the 2024 race while the other DRR with Cusick Motorsports car driven by Conor Daly finished 10th after leading 22 laps.
In 2023, Hunter-Reay finished 11th for the team. In 2021, Sage Karam finished seventh while Santino Ferrucci finished 10th in 2022.
“Selfishly, I felt like this was going to be as good a shot as I've had to go and achieve something really great at the ‘500,’” Harvey said. “Getting to go to the shop and meet everybody, just continue building this relationship, even though it's early, we're all very, very aligned on what we want to achieve in May.
“Participation is not what we're looking to achieve. We want to really go and compete. One of my first conversations with (team owner) Dennis (Reinbold) was, ‘Here's what we're doing as a team,’ just so I'm comfortable and confident with the direction they're going. I was in.
“I've had so much respect for the team just from the years we've competed against each other. I watched Ryan's qualifying run. I thought it was awesome. I think he was in a really good position for the race.
“We're all coming in fresh. Day one, practice for the 500, we're going to be like kids in a candy shop out there on pit lane ready to go. People are already tired and thinking about everything that happens after Indy.”
Team owner Dennis Reinbold said his team isn’t showing up at Indy to finish in the top 10. He wants to win, and being an Indianapolis 500-only team allows the benefit of a singular focus.
“There's obviously disadvantages,” Harvey said of running just the Indy 500. “We know them. We accept them. I just feel from my side the singular focus is more toward the positive than negative.
“Like I also said to our partners, if I didn't think this was a place we could come compete and have a proper shot, I would have saved everybody the time, the money, the headache, the future headaches, just not have done it. But I believe this is really worth it.”