USA TODAY International Edition
Drivers find victory lane in St. Petersburg and Talladega
Colton Herta rolls to 4th IndyCar Series win; Brad Keselowski latest Cup winner.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – It was new territory for the Herta family duo, but neither Bryan, nor Colton, backed down from the fight.
With 17 laps to go, a second restart in less than 10 laps and two- time Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg defending champion Josef Newgarden on his rear wing equipped with racier red Firestone tires, the younger Herta did what he’d done all day – drove away from the competition, with his father in his ear. Who was more nervous?
“Neither of us,” Bryan said in the pits Sunday just ahead of that final restart on the NBC broadcast.
Colton sure didn’t look it, starting on the pole, the fifth of his career, and leading all but three laps to cruise to his fourth NTT IndyCar Series win to give him at least one in the first three full seasons of his still young career. His 97 laps led set a St. Pete race record, topping Helio Castroneves’ 95 set in 2007.
“P1 baby! Good job!” Bryan said over the radio to his son just after he crossed the finish line, before OKing his donuts in Turn 1 and reminding him to wave to his fans on his victory lap.
The victory tied him in the record books with his father, who drove parts of 12 seasons in both CART and the IRL from 1994 to 2006.
“That was awesome,” Herta said postrace. “I love that ( my dad) is on my radio.”
It capped a dominant weekend for Herta, who proved strong in practices Friday and Saturday and then edged Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey for the pole Saturday afternoon by nearly a quarter- second – a key that, Herta believed, would prove massive come Sunday. Especially, he said, after their season- opening day all but ended on lap 1 at Barber Motorsports Park when Herta got caught up in a crash from a Newgarden spin.
“Clean air is going to be a big thing tomorrow,” Herta said Saturday. “It’s so important to be able to stretch your feet here ( at St. Pete). You saw me and Rossi got out last year and were able to build a huge gap. If we can get a win, that would give the team so much confidence. We do have a hole to dig out of, so why not start here?”
Newgarden, who started third, settled for second- place after finishing second- to- last a week ago from the spin and lap 1 contact.
“We just lost too much ground in that second stint, and then that caution almost gifted us another chance ( to try and take the lead),” Newgarden said postrace. “I didn’t want to overextend myself today. We had a little opportunity, but Colton was too good.
“We didn’t have quite the run we needed, so I didn’t want to risk anything. It was a great rebound for both of us. I felt really bad with what happened last week.”
Newgarden was followed by another Team Penske rebound from Simon Pagenaud, who finished 12th a week ago and landed in 3rd Sunday.
Harvey, who started on the front row Sunday, took fourth, followed by Scott Dixon in fifth for his second consecutive top- 5 to start 2021.
Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Jimmie Johnson brought out the first yellow of the afternoon when, on lap 15, he locked up his tires headed into Turn 13 and slid in for a tap of the tire barrier. He finished 22nd, five laps down, ahead of Max Chilton and Dalton Kellett after Chilton retired from the race less than 20 laps in due to a mechanical failure and Kellett spun just past the halfway mark and was left by the safety team for the remainder of the race.