Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey has said he is grateful for the team’s tie with Andretti Autosport ahead of this weekend’s Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
After two seasons tied with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, for 2020 MSR has rekindled its technical partnership with Andretti Autosport.
Andretti’s team has a strong recent record on superspeedways, with three wins at the Indianapolis 500, as well as success at others including Pocono, Iowa and Fontana over the last decade.
With no experience at Texas, Harvey will among the group of drivers who will receive an extra 30 minutes of track time ahead of the opening practice session in order to build up speed on the 1.5-mile oval.
“I think these are the moments where we are extremely grateful to have a great technical partnership with Andretti Technologies,” said Harvey.
“I think there’s so many unknowns really moving into Texas, which of course we wouldn’t have chosen it to be this way, but still grateful we have the opportunity to go and try to figure it out.
“It’s the first time I’ll have been there. It’s the first time the team will have been there. It’s going to be the first time that Andretti Autosport have been there with the canopy and the halo.
“I mean, you look at it that way, there’s certainly a lot of unknowns, a lot of new things. My personal approach is just to try and be a sponge in so many ways.
“I just want to try to absorb as much information and knowledge as I can quickly to leave the weekend and feel we’ve had a good weekend.”
Harvey added that no expectations have been set for the upcoming campaign.
“Me and [team owner] Michael [Shank] haven’t gotten too heavily into it,” he said. “It would be great to finish in these sets of positions. Yeah, I think we’re all excited to get going.
“Trying to balance being realistic with that hunger and that desire just to get the season off to a great start, naturally, like everybody, we want to get to the season and want to try to win, especially since it’s been so long.
“We’re all excited about it, all thinking about Texas. I think there’s going to have to be a moment where we all restrain ourselves and marry sensibility with risk.”
