NTT INDYCAR SERIES NEWS CONFERENCE

January 27, 2026

Jack Harvey

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Jack, are you doing double duty today?

JACK HARVEY: Not really. I mean, I'm working, not really working. One of the best things actually about the FOX and Dreyer & Reinbold partnership, is they don't really entwine other than the natural synergies of being a driver and then still being immersed in those worlds.

Both organizations have been respectful that when I'm reporting, the team are blowing me up trying to do something, and then when I'm driving, Fox aren't doing the same thing, unless it's to interview A-Rod before the race. That's pretty cool.

You can blow me up anytime about something like that.

THE MODERATOR: The 500 is coming up. A couple months yet. To know you're going to be back in the car competing.

JACK HARVEY: It's amazing, yeah. I mean, it's never lost on me what a privilege this is we get to do it. We get to do this. We don't have to do it. I think that's something I haven't really not made a mantra, but really keep at the surface of all emotions really, is just that we get to do it.

Very lucky with INVST. They had a great time in 2025 at the Indy 500. Actually I signed my contract with Dreyer at the season finale in the parking lot.

Even though we're doing the one race, there's a lot of prep that has gone into it, not just from my side, but the team's side. The collective group we've put together doesn't just arrive in May, and hope for the best. Yes, we will hope for the best, but we've put as much effort in on every side you can think of to be successful.

Last year our cars were good. A little work in qualifying. The team have spent time in the off-season trying to find some low-hanging fruit. This isn't me as a driver or reporter, this is more of an observation. This time of the year is where you see people the most confident, the most optimistic, and they should be. You have a whole off-season to try to address and remedy issues, say, I'm excited for the 2026 season to get started from the reporting side, but also when I think of the Indy 500 as a driver, I'm optimistic we can have a good one.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.

Q. You seem to sort of enjoy doing the broadcast side of things. Are you satisfied doing broadcasting and Indy 500 only or is your ambition to return to the series full-time?

JACK HARVEY: I mean, obviously everybody knows this. If the opportunity to race full-time was there, I think you would obviously take it. That's not meant in any slight. I had such a fun time with FOX, I still am having a fun time with FOX. Absolutely amazing opportunity that I have with them very much to be in the paddock, to stay immersed into this community that I love so much.

Obviously I'm a racer in my heart, and still getting to drive the Indy 500. When you spent your entire life with that goal still working towards it, you never really want to turn around and say, I'm done in that department, I'm just going to focus on this.

I would say right now the situation I'm in is a pretty fantastic one, one that I think I'm very lucky to be in. If the opportunity came up, we'd obviously evaluate it and try to make the best decision. If I have a long-term career with FOX, I would say that's a very fantastic thing, as well.

One of the things that isn't lost on me, although perhaps in some scenarios it seems like pit reporting has been a backup plan or a slight diversion, if you want to say, that's still somebody's dream job. I try not to get lost on that.

I try to be very respectful. I try to prepare as well as I can for pit reporting the same way I would if I were driving. And, you know, vice versa.

Honestly I'm just enjoying life right now. I'm just trying to make the most of the opportunities that are in my life and are in front of me today.

Q. We're kind of unsure what's going to have to Prema in the next couple months. Is that something you'd be pushing Dennis to do in the next few months?

JACK HARVEY: Yeah, I mean, the Prema situation I think is so unique right now. For any team, whether it was Dreyer or any new team coming in, I think you see how difficult this series is to compete in at the highest level.

Really, if we're not going to try to go and compete for real results, everyone's dream is to win, be on the podium, but feasibly to make it worthy of all the time and the effort, you want to be targeting top 10s.

That is a challenge right now in INDYCAR. You've seen it a lot. Prema is a team with so much racing history, from Europe, but nonetheless still racing history, came and they've had the moments of brilliance and they've obviously had some tricky moments. They are where they are now.

The conversations really that have been had with Dreyer from my side is, one, if we could do it, what might it cost. Obviously there's a sponsorship element to this as well. When you get through that is are we going to be competitive. I think that's another important aspect as well.

Certainly the team, like a lot of teams out there, are monitoring that situation very closely. I would say they've got a good of a chance as anybody that if Prema weren't there, they might be able to fill in some extra races.

Q. We saw you invest in your hometown football club, Lincoln City. What do you view the chances of potential promotion?

JACK HARVEY: Yeah, what are we, tied top of the minute. At least we were when I checked at the weekend. We played a couple more games than the leaders. That was just that was something for me and my parents. We were big Lincoln City fans. I knew the ownership group really well. American family, the Jabaras from Phoenix. We've become pretty good friends and whatnot. We were at dinner one day; asked him how he got into Lincoln football club, which is quite a pivot going from Arizona to even being in soccer.

Just for context in the room, there's five professional soccer divisions in England. Lincoln City is in the third tier. Not a tiny club but not the biggest club.

I said to him, How did you get into it?

He said, I asked.

I'll just ask you if I could join as well. That's essentially what I did. Just to try to maintain that connection and commitment to my hometown. Even though I haven't lived in the UK full time in 12 and a bit years, obviously it is where I was born, where I grew up; it so shaped me.

I just wanted to show everybody in Lincoln that I haven't forgotten about them. I love sports. I love football. It was a natural fit. We jumped in both feet. It's been awesome honestly. Watching the guys have such good results is obviously fantastic, but just watching the demographics that they have, the way they break down performances, all the analytics, I mean, top sports are all operating in similar ways, but elite level. It's been fun.

Q. Jack, every year there's an article with Dennis Reinbold talking about how he's hoping to do more races. You have experience in INDYCAR growing with another team. Is that something you'd be interested in doing again with a team like Dreyer & Reinbold? What could you bring to that that you learned from your previous experience?

JACK HARVEY: That specific scenario has something that's come up, in that we've been discussing -- I have been through getting a program from just a 500 kind of capacity into doing more races. Obviously the team have had to do it. They've been full-time at certain points in their racing history.

I think the combination of us all would be really strong for what we could do on track. In terms of off track stuff we seem aligned in how we operate, how we try to treat people.

So if the opportunity was there for us to feasibly expand and do it well and do it competitively, it's definitely something I would be interested in. Obviously there's going to be a huge sponsorship and financial component to it. We'll see how those conversations go. They always take the longest to figure out.

Ultimately you've just got to try to raise the money as quickly as we all can, which I think people in our sport forget that occasionally when you're talking about motorsport money, it's not compared to real world money like we talk about. We only need, I don't know, X amount of millions to go INDYCAR racing. But when I find $20 in my jeans, I'm super happy.

Some of these things need to be kept a little in perspective just with how hard it is to actually keep finding sponsorship and things like that.

I mentioned INVST earlier. Without them, our 500 dream wouldn't be happening. Whether they could expand a bit more is a conversation we have to evolve and grow.

In a simple statement, I would be very interested in it if the right group of people and the right opportunity within all of those jigsaw pieces presented itself.

Kind of like pseudo one other question. If not, I think I've got a great opportunity with FOX. I also do have to balance some of these things against what I hope a long-term career might also be with them.

You try to spin as many plates as possible obviously. In the same breath with my situation right now, you also have to keep a low-key eye on what the future might be, not just six races in this season, but progressing in the future.

One thing I've been pushing Dennis on a lot, if INDYCAR doesn't become a more feasible expansion, maybe sports cars will be another opportunity to.

Q. Your 500 deal for 2026, it was announced very early. Given it was announced earlier than last year, how much does that help you with preparation? How good is it for you you're with the same group of people you were last year?

JACK HARVEY: Huge on both sides of that actually. I think continuity, people, when you're only doing selected races, the only one I'm signed up for right now is Indy 500. That's huge. I don't think you can underestimate what continuity can carry in terms of performance, in terms of confidence.

Last year we went through the get-to-know phase with each other. That was quite seamless and easy. I think now we can already dive into certain parts of what was good in May from the car side, driving side, what was bad in May.

Again, we know each other. We can have those open and honest conversations. In terms of getting it announced so early outside of just preparation on track, it gave us some time off track with some of the partners that we were talking to to show them that we are doing this race.

This isn't a dream, like, not, oh, jump along and we might end up here. That was a big statement of intent and commitment from INVST to show everybody they are also committed to making this successful and it also gave us time to build out the rest of our program in terms of other sponsors and partnerships, sales AI to HC1, that both have come back in an expanded way.

I love their approach to it. Sometimes as Scott has mentioned, Scott Jarred has mentioned directly from INVST, sometimes we roll a plane off the cliff and build it on the way down, try to figure out how to fly it. We have found a way to get that thing to come up and fly pretty well.

I don't think any race team has ever been sad something got announced early.

Q. How was it balancing working alongside FOX and doing the Indy 500 last year?

JACK HARVEY: Super easy actually. Kind of like what I said at the start, FOX were very respectful when it was time for me to put my microphone down and put back on the helmet. So was Dreyer. Really good communication when I was available, when I wasn't available. Kind of just a lot of mutual respect between both organizations of FOX Sports, and Dreyer & Reinbold racing allowed that to be honestly as easy a process as you could possibly imagine.

I think people think it's going to be tricky to do a little bit of both, but I remember the GP race was on the Saturday. Did our normal kind of debrief after the race. I said, Bye, see you in Detroit. Still about interviews, went into the booth a little bit. It kind of was that. On Tuesday after the race I jumped back on the FOX call to get ready for Detroit, then zoned in again.

I think when people are that reciprocal and show that much respect towards me, I try and do it back to them. Try to bring my A game when it was time to be a reporter as well.

Just lucky to be a part of those two organizations really. Fantastic.

Q. What can you take from last year's Indy 500 to improve this year?

JACK HARVEY: Well, from my side, it was pretty clear, don't speed in pit lane. I didn't warm the brakes up well enough on the way in. Ended up sailing through a pretty tasty speed. That was a pretty obvious mistake on my part.

With the team, we already have done this, when you dissect the rest of the month, I don't think I made a lot of other big ones. It was obviously a shame that when that happened, the repercussions of it were huge. We were the first pit box in pit lane, so I missed that. I went through the pits once. Then I actually did my pit stop, got a drive-through. That kind of compounded a pretty aggressive amount.

Otherwise I thought I actually did a good job in May kind of just jumping in the car and getting on with it.

From the team side I think we lacked a little bit of speed in qualifying. I thought our race car was really solid. One of the nicest things this off-season has been able to dive into very specific areas with a clear objective of -- I say how to improve, that's the difficult part, but a very clear idea of where we need to improve, let's say.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.