Michael Shank Racing opened a new era in 2015 when the squad transitioned to a P2 car after 10 years of Daytona Prototype competition. The 2015 Rolex 24 At Daytona marked the team’s debut with its new Ligier JS P2 car as well as its new engine platform with Honda.
Longtime Michael Shank Racing driver Negri put the new Honda-powered Ligier JS P2 package on the pole for the Rolex 24 to start the year off well.
In 2016, the team made its debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Pew, Negri and Belgian racer Laurens Vanthoor leading two laps and finishing ninth.
The 2016 Petit Le Mans marked Michael Shank Racing’s 250th Prototype start and was also Pew’s final race with the team before retiring from IMSA racing. After starting from the pole, the team dominated the race and won, placing fourth in the championship.
The factory-backed program for the GTD class followed in 2017 with one car driven by Negri and Jeff Segal and another driven by Andy Lally and Katherine Legge. Lally and Legge gave the all-new Acura NSX GT3 its first victory globally in 2017 at the Detroit Grand Prix. It was the first of two victories that year and two more followed in 2018.
The team finished second in the standings in 2018 before Hindman and Farnbacher won the championship in 2019 and Farnbacher and McMurry did the same in 2020.
Shank was awarded the Rolex Bob Snodgrass Award of Excellence presented by the Gorsline Company in 2017 in recognition of his integrity, passion for the sport and love of cars.
While continuing his sports car program, Shank put many feelers out in an effort to begin an IndyCar program. Several attempts didn’t pan out, but in 2017 the team partnered with Andretti Autosport to field an entry for Harvey in the Indy 500. Although Sirius sponsored the car that year, Meyer didn’t come on board as a co-owner until 2018.
With his addition in 2018, the Meyer Shank Racing IndyCar program grew to six events run in partnership with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, including the 2018 Indy 500. Harvey’s best finish that year was 12th during the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Despite starting in the last row, he was impressive in the Indy 500, running with the leaders late in the race before having to pit with a few laps to go.
In 2019, Harvey competed in 10 IndyCar races for Meyer Shank Racing with Schmidt Peterson, with a best finish of third at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. He had one top-five finish and four top-10 results that season.
Last year, Harvey ran the full IndyCar Series schedule for Meyer Shank Racing in a COVID-19 season, placing 15th in the championship in the team’s first year working with Andretti Autosport through a technical alliance.
The Andretti association will continue this season with both cars. Harvey’s average starting position in the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda was 8.8, fifth highest in the series — higher than even series champion Scott Dixon.
Shank zeros in on three things he feels have been the reasons for his team’s success.
“The first thing is my employees; I’ve always made sure I’ve done right by my personnel,” he said. “The second thing is I always try to overdeliver on what I promise to our partners and sponsors. And the third thing is I think we’ve made the right critical decisions at key times.”
What are some examples of the latter?
“I think one was getting out of open-wheel racing to go sports car racing,” he said. “I think another was when we expanded our IndyCar program, which came in conjunction with having Jim Meyer come on board as a co-owner. We wouldn’t have been able to do that without him. And another critical decision was beginning our relationship with Honda in 2015,” he said.
MSR’s growth bodes well for the sport and it will be interesting to see what lies ahead for the team in 2021 and beyond.