Juri Vips subs for Jack Harvey in IndyCar test at Barber

The Briton crashed into the already shunted Ed Carpenter Racing car of Rinus VeeKay on Lap 42 at the Turn 4 tire wall. His car then took a second impact, this time from behind, as it served as a launch ramp for Kyle Kirkwood’s Andretti Autosport machine which flew over the stricken RLL machine.

Harvey was taken to hospital for evaluation at a local hospital to investigate a his sore right wrist and left forearm.

Barely more than a week later, the IndyCar team has not yet cleared him to return to the cockpit of his #30 RLL entry. Instead, his place will be taken by Vips who impressed the team in his initial test with the squad at Sebring last October. The 22-year-old Estonian, who has scored three Formula 2 wins for Hitech GP, will join RLL full-timers Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard.

An RLL statement said, “Harvey will be evaluated again prior to making his return to competition at the PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 2.”

This is the second straight year that Harvey has had an injury setback early in the season. Last year, he crashed in practice for the Texas round and wasn’t cleared to drive, obliging RLL to replace him with Santino Ferrucci mid-weekend.

RLL is one of seven teams testing at Barber, along with all four Chip Ganassi Racing entries, three Penske drivers, both Meyer Shank drivers, both Dale Coyne Racing drivers and singleton entries for rookies from AJ Foyt Racing (Benjamin Pedersen) and Juncos Hollinger Racing (Agustin Canapino).