Herta prepared for all that IndyCar GP presented to him
Colton Herta stopped an early slide, overcame two late pit stops and eventually pulled away from Simon Pagenaud on Saturday to win the wild, wacky and wet IndyCar Grand Prix in Indianapolis.
Herta beat the threetime race winner by 3.0983 seconds amid rooster tails coming from the saturated road course. The 22-yearold California driver won for the first time this season and seventh time overall.
“This is awesome,” Herta said. “That's the hardest race I think I've ever done — wet to dry, dry back to wet.”
Rain and the threat of rain forced race strategists to constantly change their plans. Nobody made better calls than Herta, who also gave Honda its first victory of the season.
He and two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato were the first to switch from wet tires to dry just three laps into the race. One lap later, as he fought to keep the Andretti Autosport car straight on cold tires and a damp track, the No. 26 was sideways in the 10th turn on Indy's 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
Somehow he hung on, quickly moved to the front and stayed there most of the race. Herta led 50 of 75 laps.
Even when it appeared Herta made the wrong choice — like running on dry tires after Alexander Rossi and made an early switch back to rain tires — his team didn't fret.
“I'm not sure we did the right thing but if we were wrong, we're all wrong,” said Herta's father and race strategist, Bryan, after the first of the two pit stops.
But Herta's perfectly timed second stop set him up to make the winning pass of Pato O'Ward on Lap 66 with O'Ward still on dry tires. Herta took the inside line in the first turn, slipped past O'Ward and drove away.
• Christopher Bell qualified on the pole for today's race at Kansas Speedway, topping the time set by Tyler Reddick earlier in the session and grabbing his third pole of the NASCAR Cup Series season for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Bell turned a lap of 179.575 mph in the first showcase of the Next Gen car at the mile-and-a-half oval. That was enough to beat Reddick, who went 178.855 mph for Richard Childress Racing, and add to the poles that Bell won at Las Vegas and Talladega.
In the Truck Series race, Zane Smith drove away from pole-sitter John Hunter Nemechek and Ty Majeski on a restart with nine laps to go for his third series victory of the season.
• Matt Hagan made the fastest Funny Car run in Virginia Motorsports Park history to top qualifying for the Virginia NHRA Nationals.
Hagan had a 3.853-second pass at 331.45 mph in Tony Stewart Racing's Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for his second No. 1 of the season and 44th overall.
Brittany Force was the fastest in Top Fuel and Angie Smith topped the Pro Stock Motorcycle lineup, also with track-record runs.
Force topped her Friday track-record run twice Saturday, finishing with a 3.654 at 333.333. Smith had a 6.756 at 201.37, on a Buell.