“Not having that is extremely tough because it’s very late in the day,” Harvey continued. “A lot of teams have already, when they do finally get racing, have drivers already sorted and sorted out. It’s just one of those ones where there’s so few opportunities to find out, what, the 1st of June, the first six months of the year have gone, first five months at least.
“You’re scrambling now, that’s the reality, to try to salvage a season. In terms of development, you have to either look at what’s on Indy Lights level, take another year in Pro Mazda, do you look elsewhere, maybe some European racing at that same level.
“It’s tough. It’s really tough. For example, you might have a sponsor who only wants you to race in North America, so going to Europe is out of the question. Might want to do Pro Mazda again.
“It’s an unusual year,” Harvey added. “I feel really sad and bad for the guys who have been working so hard coming into the Indy Lights year, either looking to progress their career, looking to try to win the championship to further their career. It’s a really awful situation.”
Harvey’s IndyCar career with Meyer Shank Racing has been intentionally methodical. Through three part-time seasons, the team was building for the future before making the leap to a full-time competition this year.
But then the pandemic happened and the first half of the season was wiped out. Harvey is ready to get the season started Saturday at Texas.
“I’m not anxious, just excited, mate, really,” he said. “Me and Michael (Shank, team co-owner) were trying to find some of the positives throughout all this situation. One thing that Meyer Shank Racing team and myself have been used to the last few years is missing races and having gaps in the schedule.
“For us in a lot of ways, I’m not going to say it’s normal, but the thing that was going to be new to us this year was doing every race on the schedule, which we are going to do. We’re definitely used to having the gaps, last two years being only part-time, but now obviously that’s changed.
“I think the mentality of it, like I said to the guys as well, we really should be able to use this as a positive,” he added. “Ultimately, I think, not just for me, but for everybody on the team, everyone is excited to try to turn the page and get back to the race track. At the end of the day we’re here to race. We want to do the best we can.
“I’m excited, probably more excited now than how we felt in St. Pete in a lot of ways.”