At Speed - IndyCar Podcast

July 4th is going to be a hot one for Meyer Shank Racing, no matter what the temperature is. The IndyCar side will be racing on the road course at Indianapolis, and the IMSA side will be racing on the road course at Daytona. Plus, team founder and co-owner Mike Shank plans to make the scene for both, his own Independence Day double-header. Nobody needs to light his fuse.

In pursuit of victory in the Rolex Daytona 24 Hour race, Mike Shank needed to add a relentless hot shoe to his talented race team. He turned to A.J. Allmendinger, and not only did A.J. become a key ingredient to the historic victory in the 50th 24 in 2012, he became a great friend. The two have leaned on each other for support in good times and bad, which is why Shank considers A.J. to be one of the central figures in the rise of Meyer Shank Racing.

It was somewhat of a chance encounter that put Jim Meyer and Mike Shank together. But Meyer, SiriusXM CEO, liked the way Shank led his Pataskala, Ohio-based race team, and having been bitten by the auto racing bug decades before, Meyer wanted in. The rest, both of them have resolved, is history in the making.

Driver Jack Harvey and Meyer Shank Racing team founder Mike Shank have been plotting a full season foray in IndyCar for years. Covid-19, of course, stepped in and delayed it even more. But barring another hiccup, the season will start next Saturday night at Texas, and to say Harvey is pumped would be an understatement.

Mike Shank has never left any doubt that his Meyer Shank Racing team with driver Jack Harvey is in the Indy 500 because it wants to win It. But in the wake of Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing winning the 104th 500, Shank and his team co-owner Jim Meyer found solace and their team's highest finish ever, 9th.