Jack Harvey: the racing driver’s career from karts to IndyCar

Jack Harvey is a British racing driver from Bassingham in Lincolnshire, born on 15 April 1993, who won the 2012 British Formula 3 title, finished second in Indy Lights in 2014 and 2015, and has made 95 starts in the NTT IndyCar Series since his debut in the 2017 Indy 500. He has not won an IndyCar race; his best result is third in the 2019 IndyCar Grand Prix on the Indianapolis road course.

Since 2025 he has raced only in the Indianapolis 500, in the No. 24 Chevrolet of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and has worked the rest of each season as a pit reporter on Fox’s IndyCar broadcasts. On 13 October 2026 he announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and said he still plans to be back for the 2027 season, as Fox Sports reported.

Early life and karting in Lincolnshire

Harvey grew up in Bassingham, a village near Lincoln, where his parents run a steel fabrication business; he started karting at nine, he said in a 2024 interview with FanAmp. His karting record took in British, European and Asia-Pacific titles, according to the profile McLaren published on its website in March 2010.

Harvey told SkiddMark in 2010 that the title that settled it was the British Junior Championship in 2006, which he won at 13: “That’s when I decided this is what I wanted to do.” By late 2008 he held the KF2 kart title, and the Racing Steps Foundation announced in January 2009 that it would fund the 15-year-old’s move from karts to cars that year. Harvey later described the foundation as Graham Sharp’s scheme to “support drivers who without him wouldn’t have the opportunity to go racing”; it paid for his next five seasons and helped him move to America for 2014 (IndyCar, December 2013).

Formula BMW Europe and the 2010 title fight

Harvey raced two seasons of Formula BMW Europe with Fortec Motorsport, finishing seventh as a rookie in 2009 and second in 2010, when he lost the title to Robin Frijns at the last round.

The 2009 rookie season

He finished seventh in the 2009 championship and second in its rookie cup, McLaren’s profile records. The Racing Steps Foundation’s news of 14 June 2009 reported his first win, at Zandvoort. In July the British Racing Drivers’ Club gave the 16-year-old one of its 40 Rising Star places for that year, as BBC Sport reported.

Seven wins and the Monza finale in 2010

In 2010 Harvey won seven of the 16 races and took eight poles, Autosport noted when it named him a finalist for its young driver award. He went to the final round at Monza seven points ahead of Frijns and stretched that to nine by taking pole for both races, but in race one the DAMS driver Javier Tarancón pushed him off while he ran second, Autosport reported on 16 September 2010. Harvey won race two. Frijns needed only a handful of points and took the title with eighth place, in what was the last season of Formula BMW Europe.

Harvey gave SkiddMark his own account later that year: “We’d gone from 9 points in the lead at the start of the race to sat in the gravel and 21 points behind.” He put his season at seven wins from 16 races, eight poles, seven fastest laps and 13 podiums. “In any other season I would’ve run away and won it with races to spare,” he said, and added that the year had taught him “how to handle the increasing levels of expectancy”.

What Harvey told SkiddMark in 2010

The interview was recorded during a test day at Silverstone, a few months after the 17-year-old passed his driving test, and first published on 5 November 2010. He was then studying for his A-levels and going to the gym at 5.30am before and after school. On fear he said: “If you’re scared of this sport you’re going to be a danger to yourself, to others and likely to cause an accident. So no, I’m not scared at all.”

That season he had been in the Formula One paddock with Formula BMW and appeared on the BBC’s Formula One coverage, which he called “absolutely mind boggling”. His long-term aim was to be Formula One champion, and he named the DTM, racing in America and sports cars as the other routes open to him if Formula One did not happen. BMW had given him a 1 Series with the 1.6-litre engine as his first road car, and he had covered more than 4,000 miles in it in five weeks.

He was one of six drivers on the shortlist for the 2010 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, tested at Silverstone in Formula 2 and DTM cars (Autosport’s list of finalists). Lewis Williamson won it in December (Autosport Awards report).

British Formula 3 champion with Carlin

Harvey won British Formula 3 in 2012, his second season with Carlin, after finishing ninth in 2011. His move to Carlin, again with Racing Steps Foundation money, was confirmed in September 2010, BBC Sport reported; Carlin had won seven drivers’ titles in the series since 2001.

The 2011 season

In his first F3 year Harvey won once, in a reversed-grid race at the Nürburgring, and took four podium finishes on the way to ninth place, Autosport noted in January 2012 when he signed with Carlin for a second year. Trevor Carlin said Harvey had been a regular front runner by the middle of the season.

The 2012 title at Donington Park

Harvey clinched the 2012 title on 30 September 2012 by winning the last race of the year at Donington Park, where he held off Alex Lynn’s Fortec Dallara-Mercedes for 28 laps and won by 0.682 seconds, Autosport’s race report records. He beat his Carlin team-mate Jazeman Jaafar to the title by 13 points, with Felix Serralles 20 points back as top rookie, and was the fifth driver in a row to win British F3 with Carlin. “I wasn’t very fast but I was pushing as hard as I can,” he said.

GP3 with ART Grand Prix

For 2013 Harvey stepped up to GP3, which raced on the Formula 1 support bill at European circuits, with the ART-run Lotus GP team, keeping his Racing Steps Foundation backing (Autosport, December 2012). He won twice and finished fifth in the championship, the highest-placed rookie driver, IndyCar noted when he signed for Indy Lights.

His first win came at home at Silverstone on 29 June 2013, when he led from the first corner and beat the pole-sitter Kevin Korjus by three seconds after a long safety-car period (Autosport). The second came in race two at Monza on 8 September, where he led from the restart and held off Daniil Kvyat by less than a second (Autosport).

Indy Lights: twice the runner-up

Harvey moved to the United States for 2014 to race in Indy Lights, the series now called Indy NXT, with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, the first Racing Steps Foundation driver to race there, and was runner-up in both 2014 and 2015 with six wins in all (IndyCar).

How did Jack Harvey lose the 2014 Indy Lights title?

He lost it on a tie-break. Harvey won four of the last five races, both Sonoma races in August 2014 among them, and finished level with Gabby Chaves on 547 points and four wins each; Chaves took the title on second places, five to Harvey’s one, IndyCar reported. A bonus point for fastest lap in the first Sonoma race, which Chaves got by saving a set of tyres, made the tie possible. “Where you finish in the championship is probably where you deserve to finish,” Harvey said. In December the BRDC gave him the Earl Howe Trophy, its award for the best performance by a British driver in American racing (Silverstone’s report of the 2014 BRDC awards).

Two wins at Indianapolis in 2015

Harvey won the first of the two Indy Lights races on the Indianapolis road course in May 2015 from pole, after setting a track record in qualifying (IndyCar). On 22 May he won the Freedom 100 on the oval, a race that finished under caution after Ed Jones hit the wall with two laps left; “It was the one race that I wanted to win all season,” he said (IndyCar).

He took a six-point lead to the Laguna Seca finale in September, but Spencer Pigot won the first race while Harvey finished fifth, which turned the gap into an eight-point deficit (IndyCar), and Pigot took the title and its $1 million scholarship into IndyCar.

How did Jack Harvey get into IndyCar?

After a year without a race in 2016, Harvey made his IndyCar debut in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 in a fifth Andretti Autosport car run with Michael Shank Racing and sponsored by AutoNation, announced in April 2017 at Long Beach, during the Grand Prix weekend there. “I went to the 2014 race, fell in love with it,” he said of the Indy 500.

He told FanAmp that 2016 was “the most pivotal year”: he went home to Lincolnshire, worked for his father as a laser operator cutting metal, then moved back to America with no drive or sponsor and coached other drivers to pay his rent. He named his manager Bob Corona and Marc Cannon of AutoNation as the two people who “saved my career” (IndyCar, 2019).

He qualified 27th for the 2017 Indianapolis 500 and was out after 65 laps with damage from contact, classified 31st (Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s record of his 500 starts). Later that year he drove the last two races for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, finishing 14th at Watkins Glen and 18th at Sonoma (ChampCarStats).

Meyer Shank Racing, 2018 to 2021

From 2018 Harvey drove the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing: six races in 2018 and ten in 2019, in partnership with Schmidt Peterson, then every race in 2020 and 2021, when he finished 13th in the standings, his best IndyCar season (ChampCarStats).

The first podium at the 2019 IndyCar Grand Prix

On 11 May 2019 Harvey started third on the Indianapolis road course, passed Scott Dixon round the outside of turn one on the first lap, and ran second behind Dixon in the rain until Simon Pagenaud’s late charge took him past both. Third place was the first IndyCar podium for him and for the team; his best finish in his 13 starts before that had been tenth, and Michael Shank said he had worked “for 30 years in racing” to reach a podium at Indianapolis (IndyCar).

Full seasons in 2020 and 2021

In the shortened 2020 season he started all 14 races and was 15th in the points, with ninth place in the Indianapolis 500 his best result there. In 2021 he took four top-five starts and six top-ten finishes, with fourth places at St. Petersburg and Portland, as IndyCar listed when Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing signed him that October.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 2022 and 2023

Harvey joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on a multi-year deal to drive the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda from 2022, but the team let him go in August 2023, three races before the end of his second season. He was 22nd in the 2022 standings and the lowest-placed of the team’s three drivers; in 2023 his best finish was 13th, he qualified fourth for the May race on the Indianapolis road course, and he was 22nd in the points when he left, The Race reported. Conor Daly took the car for Gateway.

Bobby Rahal said Harvey had “committed fully to the team but for whatever reason, we weren’t able to achieve the results that he or the team deserves”. Harvey said he was “more motivated than ever” to find a new team.

Dale Coyne Racing in 2024

Dale Coyne Racing confirmed on 5 March 2024 that Harvey, by then a veteran of 79 IndyCar races, would drive its No. 18 Honda in 14 of the 17 championship races, sponsored by INVST, an Indianapolis investment adviser, with Nolan Siegel driving it at Long Beach, the Indianapolis 500 and Toronto and in the non-championship $1 Million Challenge at Thermal (IndyCar). His best finish that year was 13th and he was 25th in the standings (ChampCarStats). He ended the season at Nashville without a seat for 2025, he told FanAmp.

How many times has Jack Harvey raced the Indy 500?

Nine times, from 2017 to 2026, missing only 2024; his best finish is ninth in 2020, and the Speedway’s records put his prize money from the nine races at $1,856,020 (IMS).

In 2025 he ran in the top ten for much of the race and led three laps (IMS) before a late penalty dropped him to 19th (Dreyer & Reinbold’s announcement of his 2026 entry).

Fox Sports pit reporter

Fox named Harvey as one of its three IndyCar pit reporters, with Kevin Lee and Georgia Henneberry, for its first season of IndyCar coverage in 2025, a job he combined with his Indianapolis 500 entry (IndyCar, February 2025). He also commentates on Indy NXT by Firestone races for Fox from the booth, and did both again in 2026 (Fox Sports).

What happened to Jack Harvey in 2026?

He raced the Indianapolis 500 for Dreyer & Reinbold again, started last after a technical penalty and finished 22nd, and in October he announced a cancer diagnosis.

The 2026 Indianapolis 500

His practice at the open test in April ended early on the second day when a mechanical failure left his Chevrolet in a cloud of smoke (IndyCar video). After qualifying in May, IndyCar found that the cars of Harvey and the rookie Caio Collet had unapproved changes to their Dallara energy management systems and unapproved hardware mounting the covers; both qualifying runs were disallowed and the two cars started from the last two places on the 33-car grid, the Associated Press reported. Harvey started 33rd and finished 22nd, one lap down (IMS).

The cancer diagnosis

On 13 October 2026 Harvey said on social media that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He did not say what kind. “My goals for 2027 have not changed,” he wrote. “I plan to be on the grid in St. Pete and strapping back into a race car this May in preparation for the Indianapolis 500.” Dreyer & Reinbold said in its statement that the whole team stood behind him, and asked that his privacy be respected (Fox Sports).

Jack Harvey’s results by season

Harvey’s best championship result is the 2012 British F3 title; in IndyCar he has 95 starts, three top-five finishes and 17 top tens to the end of 2026.

Questions

Sources

• McLaren, “Jack Harvey” driver profile, March 2010 (archived copy): date of birth, karting titles, the 2009 Formula BMW result.
• Racing Steps Foundation, “Kart star Harvey joins RSF for 2009”, 23 January 2009 (archived copy): the KF2 title and the foundation’s funding.
• BBC Sport, “Harvey receives Rising Star award”, 23 July 2009: the BRDC Rising Star place.
• Autosport, “Harvey set for British F3 in 2011”, 16 September 2010: the Monza finale of 2010.
• BBC Sport, “Jack Harvey confirms 2011 British Formula Three drive”, 26 September 2010: the Carlin deal.
• Autosport, McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalists, 2010: the shortlist and his 2010 wins and poles.
• Autosport, 2010 Autosport Awards live report, December 2010: the award winner.
• Autosport, “Harvey targets British F3 title in second season with Carlin”, 9 January 2012: the 2011 season.
• Autosport, “Donington British F3: Jack Harvey claims title with victory”, 30 September 2012: the 2012 title.
• Autosport, “British F3 champion Jack Harvey switches to GP3 with Lotus in 2013”, 11 December 2012: the GP3 deal.
• Autosport, “Silverstone GP3: Jack Harvey claims dominant first win at home”, 29 June 2013: the Silverstone win.
• Autosport, “Monza GP3: Jack Harvey wins race two”, 8 September 2013: the Monza win.
• IndyCar, “England’s Harvey crosses pond to race in Indy Lights”, 13 December 2013: his GP3 result and the move to America.
• IndyCar, “Chaves earns Indy Lights title on tiebreaker”, 24 August 2014: the 2014 tie-break.
• Silverstone, BRDC 2014 annual awards, 8 December 2014 (archived copy): the Earl Howe Trophy.
• IndyCar, “Harvey, Rayhall earn first victories of the season”, 10 May 2015: the Indianapolis road course win.
• IndyCar, “Harvey wins Freedom 100; SPM has top four spots”, 22 May 2015: the Freedom 100.
• IndyCar, “Indy Lights title duel goes down to exciting finale”, 12 September 2015: the 2015 finale.
• IndyCar, “Andretti Autosport adds fifth Indy 500 entry for Harvey”, 9 April 2017: the IndyCar debut and his Indy Lights record.
• FanAmp, interview with Jack Harvey at the 2024 Nashville finale: his family, 2016 and the end of 2024.
• IndyCar, “Podium finish has Harvey, Shank smiling and yearning for more”, 12 May 2019: the 2019 podium.
• IndyCar, “Harvey to drive No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda for RLL”, 11 October 2021: the 2021 season and the RLL deal.
• The Race, “Rahal drops Harvey in-season for 2024 IndyCar candidates”, 15 August 2023: the end of the RLL deal.
• IndyCar, “DCR confirms Harvey, Siegel, Braun, Newey”, 5 March 2024: the Dale Coyne programme.
• IndyCar, “Lee, Henneberry, Harvey to report from pits”, 27 February 2025: the Fox role.
• IndyCar, “Jack Harvey back at Indy in 2026 with Dreyer & Reinbold, INVST”, 24 September 2025: the 2025 race and the 2026 entry.
• IndyCar, “Jack Harvey goes up in smoke at Indy 500 open test”, 29 April 2026: the engine failure in testing.
• Associated Press, via WTOP, “IndyCar penalizes 2 cars for rules violations”, 17 May 2026: the 2026 qualifying penalty.
• Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jack Harvey Indianapolis 500 career statistics: every 500 start, finish and prize money.
• Fox Sports, “INDYCAR driver Jack Harvey shares cancer diagnosis”, 13 October 2026: the diagnosis, his IndyCar totals, the 2026 broadcast work.
• ChampCarStats, Jack Harvey: IndyCar starts, best finishes and standings by season.
• SkiddMark, “INTERVIEW: British F3 Champion Jack Harvey talks with SkiddMark”, first published 5 November 2010 and republished 1 October 2012: the 2010 season in his words, his karting title, his plans and his first road car.