IndyCar driver change confirmed for Gateway

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Jack Harvey have cut ties, with Conor Daly set to replace Harvey in the upcoming IndyCar race at Gateway.

IndyCar silly season continued on Tuesday when Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Jack Harvey confirmed that they had cut ties, with the No. 30 Honda set to be driven by somebody else in the final three races on the 17-race 2023 schedule and in 2024.

For the next race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday, August 27, that somebody else is set to be another driver who lost his ride earlier this season in Conor Daly.

Daly, who began the year driving full-time for Ed Carpenter Racing before being replaced behind the wheel of the No. 20 Chevrolet by Ryan Hunter-Reay, has already made three additional appearances in relief of Simon Pagenaud behind the wheel of the No. 60 Honda at Meyer Shank Racing.

Gateway has been one of Daly’s best tracks throughout his IndyCar career. He finished in fifth place in his first start at the four-turn, 1.25-mile (2.012-kilometer) Madison, Illinois oval in 2017 and added a sixth place finish in 2019 and finishes of 10th and eighth in 2020.

As for Jack Harvey, a change was inevitable for the 2024 IndyCar season.

The 30-year-old British driver recorded just a single top 10 finish in 31 starts for the team to which he was recruited by Graham Rahal himself after an impressive stint with Meyer Shank Racing. That top 10 finish was only a 10th place finish in a chaotic race on the streets of Nashville last August.

This season, Harvey recorded just two top 15 finishes in 14 starts, a 13th place finish on the streets of Long Beach and a 14th place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Even last year, when he only finished in 22nd in the championship standings, he still recorded seven top 15 finishes in 17 starts.

Given the overall lack of testing time that IndyCar teams have these days, it was always highly unlikely that Daly’s separation from Ed Carpenter Racing would be the final in-season change of 2023. Now Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing have gotten slightly ahead of the game before making a full-time driver decision for next year.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing have not yet confirmed who will drive the No. 30 Honda in the season’s final two races at Portland International Raceway on Sunday, September 3 or at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday, September 10.