During weekend his IndyCar team logged its first win in nearly three years, rumors were swirling that Bobby Rahal's swing two years ago at a fast, veteran talent in need of a scenery change -- British driver Jack Harvey -- would soon be out.

Rahal was resolute in his defense of the driver, whose tenure at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had been but a fraction of his previous three years at Meyer Shank Racing, where in 40 starts from 2019-21, he logged 16 top-10s, three top-5s and a podium. Harvey's move to leave a familiar, familial home for a team in the midst of growth and a shakeup would produce just a single top-10 -- 10th at Nashville in 2022, a race where just 13 of the 28 cars came within 1 lap of finishing the full race distance.

"As I tell everybody, Jack's our guy," Rahal told IndyStar moments after his press conference celebrating Christian Lundgaard's first IndyCar win July 16 at Toronto. "I really feel bad for the guy. He can't buy good luck. I feel bad for Jack, and we know he can drive the car.

"I'll just say this. I don't see things changing at this stage."

One win not enough: Bobby Rahal still wrestling with hellish May, what's next

Less than one month later, Harvey has been sacked with three races left in the 2023 campaign, his No. 30 Honda entry sitting two points away from a Leaders Circle spot for next year that would pay nearly $1 million in guaranteed winnings. On Saturday in his final start with RLL, Harvey produced his second-best finish of the year in 14th, after qualifying 8th and serving a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change.

Tuesday, the team announced that Conor Daly will make his debut with the team in two weekends at Worldwide Technology Raceway, marking the eighth team the Noblesville-native has driven for in some capacity on the active IndyCar grid during his decade-plus racing career. In adding a third different Indy car he's hopped into during his whirlwind of a 2023 season, Daly gets another shot at a track he often calls one of his favorites outside IMS and the Indy 500 where he has six starts in his career -- five of them within the top-11, including a top-5.

He replaces the driver who finished 1st and 2nd across RLL's three-car lineup during the most recent IndyCar oval race weekend at Iowa (18th, versus 20th and 28th; and 19th, versus 13th and 20th). Harvey also logged RLL's best finish to cap a tumultuous Month of May at IMS in the 500, finishing 18th a week after bumping teammate Graham Rahal from the race.

'Hunger Games with our own team': Scene as Jack Harvey bumped Graham Rahal from Indy 500

"It's no secret that my time at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing didn't go as planned. It was not through a lack of effort," Harvey said in a statement posted to Twitter Tuesday morning shortly after the team announced the news. "I leave confident that I put my everything into every moment as a member of the team.

"I am thankful for the time and effort that every crew member put in over the last two years. This has been challenging for everyone involved. Only time will tell what the future holds. I am more motivated than ever to find a new home in IndyCar to showcase what I am capable of doing behind the wheel of a race car. We are not defined by our failures, but rather how we respond to them."

Said the elder Rahal: "I would like to thank Jack Harvey for all this efforts on behalf of RLL for the last year-and-a-half. He committed fully to the team, but for whatever reason, we weren't able to achieve the results that he or the team deserves, and we wish him well in the future.

"We will use the final three races of the season to gauge other racing talent. I'm very pleased that Conor has agreed to join us in St. Louis. He's been strong there, and I feel that he can bring value to the team while also providing us with a strong effort."

RLL has not been shy in testing drivers outside the organization in the last few months as it searches for its foundation of the future that, for the moment, only includes the 22-year-old Lundgaard. When asked this weekend about their future together in a contract year, both Bobby and Graham Rahal told IndyStar that things continue to move in a positive direction, regarding the likely return of the driver of the No. 15 Honda, but the younger Rahal is still without a deal beyond the final three races of the 2023 season.

This year alone, RLL gave 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist his debut oval test at Texas Motor Speedway, had ex-Red Bull F1 reserve driver Juri Vips stand-in for an injured Harvey at a test at Barber this spring -- following Vips' initial driver evaluation test last fall with RLL at Sebring. The team also gave a look to Indy Lights talent Toby Sowery with a test at Sebring in June following the British driver's return to what's now the Indy NXT paddock for three starts this year after lengthier stints in 2019 and 2021.

All three would seem likely candidates for starts at Portland and Laguna Seca to complete the No. 30 Honda's campaign, along with Daly.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Jack Harvey out at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Daly in