‘ Tough day’ for Shank team at Indy

As much as Michael Shank has been encouraged through the years to put his Pataskalabased team into the Indianapolis 500, doing so for the first time this year, nobody said it was going to be easy.

He and his rookie driver, Jack Harvey, found out the hard way Monday. Harvey smacked the SAFER barrier in turn 2 at a relatively low speed, losing control after leaving the pit area because of a steering linkage malfunction. Harvey was not hurt.

Earlier, the Englishman had gone through the first phase of rookie orientation smoothly in a session that also included Spaniard and Formula 1 star Fernando Alonso. As crashes go at the speedway, this one was minor, though the damage done was enough to put the team in the garage for the rest of the afternoon.

“Tough day,” Shank said as the first one came to a close. “We’ll be back on track (Tuesday).”

New Albany native Graham Rahal, coming off a sixth-place finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the speedway’s road course Saturday, jumped quickly up to speed on the oval Monday with the sixth-fastest lap at 224.407 mph. He had a malfunction in his Honda engine in the last hour of practice and had to take a seat, but his teammate Oriol Servia kept running on an afternoon topped by Marco Andretti (226.338).

Rookie drive Zach Veach of Stockdale, driving for the A.J. Foyt team, took part in rookie orientation at the start of the day and will gain more seat time as the week wears on headed toward the start of qualifying Saturday. The race is May 28.

Shank once dreamed of driving in the Indianapolis 500 and said that while growing up in Gahanna, listening to the 500 on the radio was tradition. He stepped out of the cockpit to become a full-time team owner years ago, winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2012.

He is partnered for the Indianapolis 500 with last year’s racewinning team, Andretti Autosport, but his crew is primarily overseeing preparations for Harvey’s car. Shank’s team has raced in a sports car event on the the road course at Indy, but this is its first attempt on the oval.

“I love just breathing the air at this place,” Shank said. “In fact, I’m staying in a motor home here in the infield because I don’t want to miss anything associated with the 500, just in case this is the only time I get to do it.”