Portland, Ore. (1 September 2019) – A promising NTT IndyCar race for the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing driver, Jack Harvey ended far too early on Sunday at Portland International Raceway after he was taken out in a turn one incident on lap 14.
The sudden and surprising end to the day came as a severe disappointment for the young Briton, who had posted a strong qualifying performance in the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda to start the race in fourth and had moved up one position at the start.
Harvey made it though the restart after an early full course caution slowed the field. Racing in fourth Harvey was blindsided when struck by the No. 28 car on the inside of turn one. The incident damaged the rear suspension and left the No. 60 Honda stranded on track, forced to retire from the race.
“My day was unfortunately cut pretty short,” said Harvey. “I had a great start and was able to get into P3 on the exit of Turn two and then on the restart I lost a place to Will Power who was on (Firestone) reds and I was on blacks. I knew that I was far enough away from Ryan (Hunter-Reay) that I actually deactivated push to pass because I was so clear. The No. 60 Autonation / SiriusXM Honda showed great pace all weekend and we have made some real good gains this year. I am proud of everyone this weekend it’s just disappointing that we weren’t able to get the result today that we deserved.”
“It’s a pretty disappointing way to finish out the weekend,” said Mike Shank. “We had such a strong run all weekend and we were on track for another podium finish. It’s pretty clear to me what happened. Ryan (Hunter-Reay) has driven for me several times in sports cars and I doubt that he meant to do that but he was defending his teammate and got into he corner too deep and made us a consequence of that. I have to thank AutoNation, SiriusXM and Jack for just a tremendous weekend. We are going to get this hot rod fixed up and get it ready for Laguna. We were really strong there at the test earlier in the year so we are really looking forward to that.”
Meyer Shank Racing will return to NTT IndyCar race action at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 20-22.