Harvey closing on six-race IndyCar deal

Mazda Road to Indy graduate Jack Harvey is speeding toward signing a six-race deal to compete in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

The young Briton, who made his Indy 500 debut in May with a Honda-powered effort fielded by Michael Shank Racing with Andretti Autosport, and returned for the final two rounds in Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' second car (pictured below), is in the final stages of assembling a program that builds upon the three races he completed in 2017.

"I was very fortunate to end the season with Auto Nation and Sirius/XM wanting to expand with me next year," Harvey told RACER. "My goal, knowing they were going to increase their support, was to find a home where I could do, within a round or two, half a season."

Harvey says he hasn't chosen a team at this relatively early point in the offseason, but it wouldn't be a surprise if Shank, Carlin Racing, and other smaller outfits were on his radar.

"The only criteria I've been given by my sponsors is to find a competitive team," he added. "We've talked to just about every team in the paddock at some point, and I really enjoyed running with Mike Shank and Andretti, and we're certainly getting closer to finding the right program for me next year."

Harvey's ideal scenario would be to find additional funding to contest eight rounds in 2018 and work to become a full-timer in 2019. The current strategy for his six-race deal would span the entire season, with high-value tracks chosen for familiarity and maximum commercial impact.

"Even if you're choosing six or eight, you'd still be missing a lot of great tracks," he said. "We'd like to go to the ones I know, first, and Auto Nation has some they want, like St. Petersburg, which is close to their headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. We'd want it to be spread out across the season, not stacked in the beginning or the end. St. Pete, Long Beach, the Indy 500, Sonoma, and a few more between those."

The 24-year-old is keen to complete and announce his program prior to the start of private testing with IndyCar's new UAK18 bodywork on Jan. 8.

"We're hoping to get things wrapped up this side of Christmas," he said. "That's what we're all hoping will happen. We can't wait much longer than that, and whatever we end up doing, we want to get out testing in January. From what I do know, there's a lot of good work being done in testing with Andretti and SPM, and I don't want to miss out on getting a lot of miles in before St. Pete."