Jack Harvey exclusive: FOX move, IndyCar regrets & unfinished business
- Archie O’Reilly
- 3 minutes ago
- 20 min read
Until last month, Jack Harvey had never even been to Hollywood.
A humble lad from the small English village of Bassingham in Lincolnshire, he was raised in a family of farmers. So when the nickname Hollywood Harvey became popularised upon joining the FOX Sports IndyCar broadcast team, there was a reluctance to own it.
“Look, is this something I’m going to regret?” Harvey asked FOX colleague Will Buxton. “It feels like it’s not me. It feels weird.”
Very quickly though, he realised his lack of keenness on the nickname was somewhat of an error. From ‘Jack Harvey’, he was suddenly being introduced on every broadcast as ‘Hollywood’. And the more he hinted at his dislike, the more it caught on.
Lots of it was light-hearted disdain for the name. But for a modest Briton, Harvey was worried it would come across the wrong way.
“Suddenly ending up with the nickname Hollywood just felt a bit weird. I think that was more so because I didn’t want people to think that I had instigated this and now thought I was above my station or whatever. That was why I was a little bit uneasy to start.”
Harvey does describe the conversation he had with Buxton about the big-time nickname as a semi-serious one. He desperately did not want to come across the wrong way. But Harvey’s countryman assured him that he was overthinking it.
“Everyone knows that you’re a pretty humble guy and you’re super normal. That’s what makes it funnier.”
From that point, Harvey felt more at ease with the Hollywood tag and its comic irony. Over time, he has learned to embrace it. Or at least not dismiss it.
But the hesitation to permanently adopt the nickname does speak to Harvey’s grounded character. And a driver-turned-broadcaster - for now at least - at still only 32 years old, it is a character that has been tested sternly during his racing career to date.
Harvey has loved stepping into a broadcasting role with FOX this year - as an IndyCar pit reporter and member of the Indy NXT booth. For that reason, he is equally reluctant to truly open up about the harshness of having to step away from driving; he does not want to appear to be acting hard done by, for he knows he is still loving living someone’s dream.
But knowing that he still has the capability to be on track rather than reporting about his peers doing just that, there is naturally anguish every weekend that he is in the paddock.
“Every time I’m at the track not driving, it’s painful. Every single time,” he admits. “I don’t talk about it across social media and honestly a lot of podcasts because I’m not fishing for sympathy from people.
“I still enjoy what I get to do and a lot of people would still trade with you in a heartbeat. But for anyone who thinks it’s easy just going to the track, watching your mates race and you know you could mix it up with them, yeah, it’s hard.
“Every weekend, there’s an element of that that is really hard from Practice 1 to when you’re getting on the plane going home. And I try to keep perspective that what I’m doing is still cool and still fun and a lot of people would trade me. But not driving is very difficult to process.”
Only four years ago, in his second full year of leading a single-car Meyer Shank Racing team in its infancy, Harvey’s reputation in the IndyCar paddock was at a peak.
From when they first entered the series as Mike Shank Racing as an Indianapolis 500-only effort in 2017, partnering with Andretti Autosport, it was Jack Harvey’s team. At that point, he was a 24-year-old prodigy fresh off successive runner-up finishes in Indy Lights in 2014 and 2015.
The following year, again with Harvey at the helm and with Jim Meyer joining forces with existing team owner Mike Shank to forge Meyer Shank Racing (MSR), there was an expansion to a six-race programme in collaboration with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
By 2019, Harvey was solely leading a small new team to firmly punch above its weight.
Building up to a full-time debut the following year, the team ran Harvey’s No.60 entry for 10 races; he achieved four top-10 results, including a third-place podium finish on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
This was a story of faith - both team-to-driver and driver-to-team. And Harvey’s work was integral to finally making the full-season step in 2020.
Ending the 14-race curtailed COVID-year season 15th in points - 50 clear of rookie Álex
Palou in 16th and only 29 points behind Alexander Rossi in ninth - Harvey impressed again. He validated that level in 2021, ending the year 13th as MSR built towards a two-car effort, with Hélio Castroneves racing six times in the No.06 entry, winning his fourth Indy 500.
The project Harvey was at the heart of was set for its big next step in 2022. But rather than continue to build with MSR and prolong a sharp upwards trajectory, he took the decision to move to a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) team itself expanding from two to three cars.
Not until 2024 - with Felix Rosenqvist 12th in points - did MSR achieve a better season-long result than Harvey’s in 2021. Simon Pagenaud picked up a second-place finish on the Indy road course in 2022 but neither him nor fellow former Penske great Castroneves could exceed or even quite replicate Harvey’s heights.
But the issue was, Harvey never came close to reaching that level again himself.
His time with RLL could hardly have started worse. In only his second round at Texas Motor Speedway, a practice crash left Harvey without medical clearance and sidelined for the weekend. That manner of turbulence only set the tone for the next two years.
Harvey’s first year with the team saw him log only one top-10 finish and seven results in the top 15. He ended the year 22nd in the standings, with teammates Graham Rahal and rookie Christian Lundgaard 11th and 14th.
Sadly, it only got worse in 2023. Harvey was demoted from the No.45 to the No.30 entry - without HyVee’s sponsorship - in a swap with Lundgaard and finished only twice inside the top 15 with a best result of 13th through 14 races.
Lundgaard himself broke the top 10 in points in eighth, while with three rounds remaining, Harvey was cut from the RLL lineup in a bid to make the Leaders’ Circle cut and evaluate other options, including current reserve driver Jüri Vips.
“Honestly, man, we could probably do a whole podcast chat just on [the two years at RLL] alone,” Harvey suggests. “Graham’s a great friend of mine; I’ve got a lot of respect for him and a lot of respect for people at the team still. It just didn’t work out.
“To pinpoint exactly what it was would take [a long] time. Same sort of question for: ‘Why did you make the move?’ Not: ‘Why did it go bad?’ But also: ‘How did you end up there?’
“Ultimately, all I’ve learned from it is decision-making process and being able to change a little bit of that. And then after that, if you see something starting to go a way that you don’t [like], then just seeing the signs for it sooner and being able to make some changes.”
In a two-year span, Harvey went from the figurehead of a project now thriving as a front-running, stable two-car operation to a driver left scrambling for a drive. And it becomes a dangerous place when you find yourself trapped in that rut.
It is hard to look back at what was at his hands only a matter of years ago.
“I would say up to that point [of leaving MSR] I was pretty content with how everything was generally going,” Harvey reflects. “That’s another reason why I don’t want to give up fully on driving because I still feel like there’s a lot of talent left to show.
“I think there’s a lot of people still to prove wrong. There’s some people to prove right - for the people who have supported me - and show them why we should be still trying to do this.
“We were on a good path and ultimately I just made the wrong decision to go to Rahal at the time that I did. That’s been difficult to recover from, because when it doesn’t go well, it’s hard to then get into a good seat and then you’re not doing a full season again. It’s just very hard.”
That was the situation Harvey was left in after 2023. A challenging cycle.
With partners Invst, he was able to put together a late deal for the majority of the season at Dale Coyne Racing, who placed their faith in Harvey and his experience in uncertain times. An initial 14-race programme became all but the Indy 500 in the end, though Harvey was forced to sit out Iowa Race 2 and Toronto with a back injury so did only run 14 races.
The year was tough again: two top-15 finishes and again a best result of only 13th. And once more after the season, Harvey was left in the same precarious position of free agency.
“I can’t remember how early it became clear to me that racing full-time [in 2025] was going to be tough,” he recalls. “One thing to remember is that I don’t make that decision. That decision gets made for you.
“I knew we didn’t have the funding that we would need to go full-time. It’s not like I’m just choosing not to race full-time - I would never choose that. I’m just doing the best I can with realistically the cards that we’ve been dealt, what I think is a potential opportunity, what isn’t.
“It costs a lot of money and sponsorship. And some teams right now are in a position where they need funding. If funding wasn’t on the table for anybody, then I think we would be racing full-time. That’s not the case. That’s not how motorsport is. It’s not how it’s always been in the past either so I don’t lose sleep over it.
“I just still try and figure out: ‘How do we do the bits we want to do?’ And if we’re doing that, can’t really grumble.”
When it transpired that a full season - or frankly anything close - would not be on the cards for 2025, attention turned to at least being back competing in the Indy 500.
Part of Harvey’s deal with Coyne in 2024 was that rookie Nolan Siegel would run at the Speedway in his No.18 entry. Harvey was in attendance all month but faced watching on with the team from the outside on the pit stand as Siegel was bumped.
Working again with Invst, attention turned to securing a deal to run the Month of May in 2025 - favoured over a part-time programme of other races. And before the turn of the year, in early December, Harvey was announced as part of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR)’s Indy-only programme alongside veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay.
“[The Indy 500] was important to [partners]. It was important to me,” Harvey says. “And I’m a big believer that 10 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing.
“With the group that we had put together, there might have been an opportunity to do a few other races here and there. But we felt that the Indy 500 with Dreyer was the best spend of money, the best spend of everyone’s time and energy and effort, resources.”
In exploring options, Harvey’s interest was also piqued by IndyCar’s new broadcast partners as FOX took over the reins from NBC Sports.
Even before the conclusion of the 2024 season, knowing the importance of being ahead of the game in the ever-moving motorsport landscape, Harvey was exploring his options for 2025. At the Nashville Superspeedway finale, he met with FOX executives for the first time - his first meeting with producer Pam Miller and vice president of production Lindsey Mandia.
“At that point, it was really more just about an introduction. It wasn’t about: ‘Hey, let’s definitely do something.’ It was more depending on what happens and all these other ifs, buts and maybes.
“Like: ‘I would just love the opportunity to talk to you guys. And if it makes sense, let’s do it.’”
Harvey was transparent with FOX throughout conversations that he wanted to race the Indy 500. And once that priority point was solved and Harvey was onboard with DRR, it did start to make that bit more sense and his interest in joining forces with FOX ramped up.
More conversations with more fresh faces ensued.
“I let them know that I was interested from the get-go,” Harvey remembers. “I didn’t try and be coy with them. I laid all the cards on the table and just said: ‘This is what I’d like to do if it happens.’
“I thought I would be good at [broadcasting] - I can turn a phrase and I can talk to people. And really I just wanted to stay a part of the IndyCar community, whether in the paddock, driving or being a reporter. Ultimately, it just is my love of sports and IndyCar racing.”
Conversations continued throughout the off-season but it was not until late February - in the week before the opening race of the season on the streets of St. Petersburg - that Harvey was officially offered a role as pit reporter.
“And then didn’t hear anything else that week. So I actually went into St. Pete without any training - any formal training, any informal training. It was very much just: ‘Learn on the fly.’”
Harvey’s first session - and FOX’s first too - ended up being alongside veteran broadcaster Kevin Lee in the booth for Indy NXT Practice 1. Not until St. Pete did Harvey actually know he would be dovetailing his IndyCar pit-reporting duties with a lead analyst role in the NXT booth alongside Lee. It had been floated but never formally discussed.
But there Harvey was making his broadcasting debut in two ways on Friday in Florida; from the NXT booth, straight into IndyCar’s opening practice and FOX’s maiden session.
“The first time I had the battery pack on was like two minutes before Practice 1,” he divulges. “Very much baptism of fire. I remember just thinking like: ‘What have I signed on for?’ Because there were so many things happening.
“Although I’ve been on podcasts and I’ve been interviewed more times than I can even remember, it’s very different suddenly when you’re then the one doing that and trying to get the flow.”
There was a lot to get to grips with in a very short space of time. Naturally a conversationalist, the tight windows for speaking or conducting interviews was the first thing to get used to.
“Someone will give you a great answer and you want to do the follow up,” Harvey explains. “But you can’t.”
What makes that even tougher is having constant voices in your ears while trying to conduct an interview. Harvey was used to the one-way channel of information from or to either his strategist or spotter as a driver.
But on pit lane, he will be having a conversation with the booth or holding an interview live on television, all while he has a producer in his ear trying to guide him where they are cutting to next, feeding information and giving timings.
“That has been the single hardest thing for me,” Harvey admits. “It’s almost like going into a restaurant focused on the person that you’re there with but still being able to listen 100 percent to the other conversations that are happening around you.
“It’s very hard to have to hear two pieces of information, process both of them. It’s still something I’m getting used to be honest.”
Ahead of the early rounds, Harvey was a stickler for note-making. But he has since learned to be less rigid and more flexible in the information he delivers across a weekend - adapting to what is happening and chasing stories - as opposed to pre-planning what he talks about.
It has been an abrupt transition from driver to essentially becoming a journalist of sorts.
“[I have been] watching the races back and just doing that very racing driver, very methodical: ‘What was good? What was bad? How would I have done it better next time? What would I do next time? How do I change my prep now to do that?’” Harvey says. “It’s been a lot of the same style of trying to improve as what I would do if I was in the car.
“When I watch [early races] back now, it’s like a two-sided coin because there’s a moment where I watch it and I’m just like: ‘Oh, that’s not great.’ I don’t think it was bad but I think I’ve made a lot of progress.
“At the same time, when I know how little prep I had, how nervous I was, the fact that I still just did it, actually I was like: ‘Okay, we can work with that.’ So there was an element of being proud of it as well.”
There was an element of the broadcasting feeling unnatural to start with. But having entered the role with no training, Harvey nears the end of his first year knowing he has improved significantly.
He is used to immense stress from all angles as a driver but this has been a different type of pressure to get used to.
“Not looking as nervous probably was the first big thing that I’ve been able to work on,” he assesses. “Purely it’s just having the reps to be able to be confident in delivery, what’s a short amount of time to speak, what’s a long amount of time to speak, what is good storytelling, what is valuable input, what is nothingy kind of input.
“The more reps I’ve been getting, the better I’ve been at being able to sift through that quickly and just been like: ‘Okay, well that’s what I need there. That’s what I need here. And this is how I want to do that.’ I probably don’t put myself under quite [the same] pressure.”
Going from being interviewed to being the one interviewing, presenting and as part of the broadcast team, Harvey was shocked at the amount of people that go into the operation. But the all-round strength of the FOX team has helped him get used to his new career path.
From those he works closest with on-screen, it was Townsend Bell who he knew the least. But even they now regularly exchange Instagram reels - often Star Wars-themed.
“Cameradarie is probably the best word,” Harvey says. “It’s such a good group of people. Everyone gets along so well. It’s such a fun group and everybody has been so helpful to me in different ways - and it’s mostly because everyone brings something different.
“It’s such a fun weekend that I really look forward to. It doesn’t feel like there’s any big, obvious gaps that need filling. From a production side, everyone’s been so great to work with. It’s a really, really strong team.”
It has been important for Harvey to have a good team around him given he has been handed double the learning as a novice getting accustomed to the varying skillsets of both working in the booth and on pit lane.
He has had to learn how to cater to different audiences across a weekend too, with FOX placing particular emphasis on the fact that practice viewers will likely be dedicated fans but races will likely have more casual viewers with less in-depth knowledge.
“When you’re in the booth commentating on a race, it’s the ability to keep it a little bit broad, to be able to explain what’s going on but in a way that anybody can just tune in and know what’s happening,” Harvey explains. “In that moment, it’s just a lot of: ‘What do you see? How can you report on it in a good way?’
“Kevin is awesome in the booth. He’s such a good storyteller; his cadence for delivery is really good as well. So I’ve been enjoying getting to work with him and learn from him.
“In pit lane, it’s more trying to stay on top of what’s happening in the race and the section that I’m covering. ‘Is someone doing a crazy strategy? Have they got a lot of tyres left? Is their strategist going to talk to us?’
“How can I contribute something into the broadcast that is meaningful?”
Upon first contacting FOX, Harvey’s long-term view was one of making a swing for the IndyCar booth. He was ultimately offered the role of pit reporter amid the analyst pair of Bell and James Hinchcliffe remaining as it was with NBC, but the work on the NXT coverage has given an early insight and further whetted his appetite.
“My ambitions are to end up in the booth - I haven’t made that a secret either,” Harvey details. “I want to be one of the main commentators.
“Obviously I want to drive as much as I can for as long as I can doing whatever I can. But from the FOX perspective, being in the booth is where I want to be. However, I’m happy I’m getting to do some of the pit lane reporting to be able to learn some of these things so if the opportunity to come in the booth arises, you just nail it. That would be really hard otherwise.”
As Harvey mentions though, he is still desperate to drive above anything. And that feeling was only enhanced by a strong Indy 500 campaign with a DRR team that he immediately struck up an extremely strong bond with.
When not at the track with FOX or preparing for race weekends as a broadcaster, Harvey spent a lot of time at the race shop with a team similarly preparing for the Indy 500 as their only race. At least for the first few months of the season, it gave him a racing goal to work towards and a feeling of still being involved on the driving side too.
“It wasn’t like I was sat there totally twiddling my thumbs,” he says. “I thought it was good having that focus and that purpose as well to almost do the work for the 500 but then do the work somewhere else so you didn’t get completely wrapped up in any anxiety or anything other than: ‘What are we targeting today? How do we do it? Then what’s next?’
“And Dreyer are obviously so good at the 500 and this isn’t their first rodeo of going through that sequence. So in the end, their guidance on timing and tempo and the build-up to the race was really good.”
When it came to the Month of May fortnight, Harvey was able to take a step back from his FOX duties to focus solely on the race at hand. At the same time, he was still included in conversations and handed opportunities as and when he wanted and was able.
On race day, he interviewed baseball legends Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter, as well as occasionally being dialled up via his in-car radio on pit lane.
“Nobody overstepped with an ask at any point,” he says. “I thought what we did was a nice balance of being focused but also being able to tap into both sides of what I’m doing this year. That was just two super respectful organisations that allowed us to do that.”
Having had to step back from the Indy 500 in 2024 for the first time since making his debut in 2017 - ending a seven-year stretch of running the great race - Harvey’s perspective shifted a little for 2025. Being sidelined for a year gave him an added sense of appreciation for the magnitude and honour of being able to participate in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
So while the task at hand was still to achieve a good result as reward for the team’s year-round preparation efforts for a solitary race, Harvey was desperate to let it all sink in.
“I had so much appreciation and gratitude for doing the 500 this year that I just enjoyed it,” he admits. “I know that sounds silly to say, but when I look back, I probably didn’t enjoy enough of them before.
“Because you’re always working towards what’s next and: ‘How do you do this? How do you do that?’ Whereas now when you come at it a little bit older but also just a bit more rounded, you can just take it for what it is, enjoy it the most you can and then just try and have the best day you can.”
Through the whole process, Harvey knew that was more than likely the only time he would be in a car in 2025. For that reason, he wanted to relish every moment through the fortnight of practice, qualifying and race, plus all the surrounding pageantry. Nothing was a chore.
Being an Indy-only entry, there was no pressure of the wider championship either.
“Every other year that we’d been racing, you’re either trying to prove why you should be there or maybe you’re working for a contract extension or something,” he adds.
“And then suddenly when you realise that doing the 500 is not a guarantee, my appreciation for the 500 was through the roof. And I just went into that with happiness and gratitude at my core and just rolled from there.”
If it was not for running out of fuel upon entering pit lane and the car being unable to restart, Hunter-Reay could well have won the race in a back-up chassis after a fire in final practice. Harvey himself, having started one position behind Hunter-Reay in 26th, led three laps on his own strategy but saw his race ruined by a pit-speed violation drive-through penalty.
An all-time great Indy 500 fairytale was cruelly denied, but it was an incredible run for one of the final remaining heroic Indy-only efforts.
“I think it was a successful one for everyone,” Harvey reflects. “I’m still a little confused exactly how Ryan got in the position that he did. On that first stint, we were together as well and then we split strategies.
“But everybody had a strong month. And probably as a team, I think we all could look back at it and go: ‘Well, what could have been?’ I don’t think we were in a position to win on the strategy that we were on, in all fairness.
“Probably one where we all look back and go: ‘Wow, this was a good group of people that could work together really well.’ Me and Ryan worked together awesome, and in an ideal world, we just run it back. Same team, same group of people, just do it again.
“Without a small mistake on my part that actually had a huge consequence, I do think we were in position to have a really great day. Hopefully we get the opportunity to come back next year and remedy that.”
Harvey is already in discussions with the DRR team about returning again for an Indy-only run-out next May. He is certainly keen to have a second bite at the cherry.
“If we could do the 500 with them again, I would be really happy. I’ve got a plan. I know what I want to do. I think I know the action plans to do it. Obviously not all those decisions are in my control because I’m not the decision-maker.
“But I know what I want us to achieve and what I want us to do.”
Harvey also plans to pivot to some sports car racing as well for 2026. He intends on targeting the major North American endurance races in IMSA: the Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans.
He knows that, realistically, full-time IndyCar racing may have passed him by - at least for now in the landscape of available seats costing so much. Not that he has given up yet though
“If we could race full-time in a competitive seat, obviously that would always be the dream,” Harvey holds onto. “If I ended up doing the 500 again and another year with FOX, it would be one that I’d sleep very easy at night.
“Ideally, we would add a few more races into that schedule, whether it’s sports cars or some other things here and there. So that’s really the focus right now.”
His first year with FOX has certainly not put him off continuing the television work. FOX has an option to extend his contract and Harvey is holding out hope that they take that.
Because while driving remains the ultimate dream, he still knows that for many others, his pit reporting or commentary duties are held in just the same esteem.
“Although some people might see the broadcasting for me as a step back or Plan B, it’s still someone’s dream job,” he insists. “Keeping that perspective is really important because it’d be very easy to not appreciate the opportunity that I’ve got with FOX as well.
“I don’t know if I could turn around and be like: ‘Oh yeah, this was what I had my heart set on since I was a kid.’ At the end of the day, I wanted to race and we’re still trying to find ways to be able to do that. So it’s not a case of no more racing, only broadcasting. It’s hopefully a scenario where we can thread the needle and do a little bit of both.”
Knowing how certain past decisions have come back to bite him, Harvey is desperate not to be burned again. Now in his thirties, he is wiser but knows opportunities could start to become more numbered should his reputation be hit again.
“Doing the 500 with a really good team like Dreyer… right now, having the opportunity to properly compete and try and showcase what I can do would be better for me than trying just to get into a car that you don’t feel confident you can achieve week in week out,” he has learned.
“Because I feel like there’s low-hanging fruit and still unfinished business, I’d rather put myself in a good position to do that than continue a narrative of: ‘It’s been difficult to recover since [the RLL years].’
“Because actually, after the 500, it felt like my stock was climbing up again and the momentum around what we were doing was high. So I feel like we’re getting back to the right path.”
As the lad from Lincolnshire reflects on where his career has taken him to date, there are mixed feelings. There is an undoubted sense of ‘what could have been’ when reflecting on certain points, thinking back to where he was spearheading MSR.
Things did go awry. But even considering those more trying years, perspective is important in that Harvey has still lived out his childhood dream of being a professional racing driver.
This is still a career with lots of runway and potential too. Now, Harvey is writing a new, still-exciting chapter in what is certainly a story that remains incomplete. There are still pages upon pages left empty - a plan in mind but scope for anything yet to be penned.
“Coming from Bassingham in the UK, a small village outside of a small town of Lincoln, yeah, I’m proud of what I’ve done. However, from purely: ‘How do I wish my career had gone?’ No, I haven’t achieved what I want to achieve yet.
“There’s a lot of unfinished business.”
