Harding Racing impresses as top rookie team

One rookie team raced to an impressive top-10 debut and the other two are looking forward to do-overs at next year's Indy 500. Mike Harding's one-car team for Gabby Chaves earned the honors for best rookie team on Sunday as the young Colombian-American driver wheeled the No. 88 Chevy to a superb ninth-place finish.

"I think we did our job," the 2014 Indy Lights champion said. "We took the race one lap at a time. We let the track and the conditions come to us and we dialed in the car every stop. We had a heck of a stint there. I think we were one of the only cars being able to make moves out there and got into a solid top 10 for our first go as a team."

With Harding Racing set to return later this year at Texas in June and Pocono in August, Chaves and the Larry Curry-led team will have more opportunities to shine as they prepare for a possible full-time effort in 2018.

Michael Shank spent decades trying to reach the Indy 500, and after watching his driver Jack Harvey suffer a crash in practice from a mechanical issue and lose a motor as well due to something being ingested by his Honda powerplant, watching Harvey get knocked out of the race through no fault of his own was a tough pill to swallow.

"It's extremely disappointing when what took us out, was out of our control," said Shank, whose No. 50 Andretti-Shank entry was hit by debris from Conor Daly's crash and spun into the wall. "To have that be the cause that ended our day, it's frustrating. I feel bad for Jack (Harvey) and the whole team that did so much work. We were up to 20th on that restart, which was great. It was still early in the race and Jack was doing an excellent job.

"I am just really thankful and proud of everyone on our team. We learned a lot and if we do make it back to the Indianapolis 500 again we have some things that we would do different to improve the process. We can definitely be stronger here, and we will see where our future takes us."

Ricardo Juncos put together an ambitious two-car program for Juncos Racing's IndyCar debut, and while the Chevy-powered cars were turned out in immaculate form, the one ingredient they needed to succeed – ample speed – proved to be elusive all month.

"We have finished what has been a huge effort from so many people," he said. "We brought both cars home in 15th (Sebastian Saavedra) and 18th (Spencer Pigot) place. It was a very tough race; the cars were not as good as they should have been and Spencer's car was really not good, so I am very happy for him because he was so professional to bring it home.

"Sebastian did a good job to finish a team-high 15th. This is the beginning of the future for us, so I have to thank everybody for an amazing job."

Like Harding, the Juncos team could appear at more races late in the year, with Pocono as the most likely candidate. Shank's future in IndyCar is less certain after leasing a car for the month, but the veteran IMSA sports car team owner has expressed an interest in continuing if the budget can be acquired.