Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s decision to sign Jack Harvey on a multi-year contract to compete in the No.45 Hy Vee Honda in the NTT IndyCar Series is a great move for a team that is experiencing rapid growth. It was announced on Monday that Harvey will partner Graham Rahal and an as yet unnamed third driver full-time from 2022 with team co-owner Bobby Rahal confirming on Monday afternoon that the Englishman wasn’t just brought in to push Graham but also to finish the team forward and to aid them in their development.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is investing an awful lot of money into its NTT IndyCar Series programme for the future with the construction of their new headquarters in Zionsville which shows their commitment to sport and their desire for success and in running three cars full-time in 2022 it means that they have an extra data pool to draw from which will help the team to move forward in the long term.
The team has been extremely consistent in their results recently with Graham Rahal scoring a number of top-ten finishes over the course of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season and with the addition of Jack Harvey who himself had a solid season in 2021 the team are set to be extremely strong in 2022. Harvey’s arrival from Meyer Shank Racing is great as he has been working with Honda for a number of years and this will help him to settle in with the team and speaking during Monday’s media call, he said that for the past week or so he has been working with the team and visiting the race shop and meeting with his new race engineers and mechanics as they prepare for next season.
Harvey also confirmed that he is limited in what he can do in terms of preparation due to the limited pre-season testing available to teams ahead of the 2022 season which gets underway in late February with the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg.
In relation to the No.30 Honda, Bobby Rahal said that this car is already funded for the 2022 season onwards and that whoever is in that car does not necessarily have to bring a sponsor with them, Rahal also confirmed that it is not a given that one of the drivers who shared the No.45 Hy Vee Honda in 2021 will get the seat in the No.30 Honda however, one driver that Paddock Eye believes would be a great fit for the team is James Hinchcliffe who despite reports linking him to a full-time IMSA GT programme for next season would be a great fit for RLL as he brings a vast amount of experience to the table and is one of the most popular drivers in the paddock.
Hinchcliffe is also a proven race winner and although he had a tough season in 2021 with Andretti Autosport he still managed to score a third place finish at the inaugural Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville.