Tag: Colton Herta

Herta and Rossi content, doubtful they could have beaten Palou

Californians Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi were pleased with their prominence in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, effectively a home race for them, but doubted whether even on the same strategy as winner Alex Palou that they could have …

Californians Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi were pleased with their prominence in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, effectively a home race for them, but doubted whether even on the same strategy as winner Alex Palou that they could have beaten him.

“It’s a good result for us today, something to build off,” said Herta, who had struggled to turn huge pace in his Andretti Global-Honda into a satisfying result over the last three rounds. “Obviously it’s frustrating not to win here I think for both of us being from California.

“The Gainbridge Honda was fast. We showed it saved fuel fast and it could run flat out fast. Yeah, I’m happy with the podium.”

Herta pitted under the first caution, obliging him to save fuel in the next stint so he wouldn’t have to make two more stops. A rash of cautions towards the end of the race eased his fuel worries, but he still couldn’t get around Palou.

“I wasn’t fast enough on the restarts,” he said. “I wasn’t as quick as him on the restarts, so I never got a good run at it.

“Beforehand we were limiting our push to pass because of how much fuel we were having to save. At the end I was full out [he set his fastest lap on the 95th and final lap] and I couldn’t get around him.”

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Asked if he was content with the strategy that the No. 26 Andretti had gone for by pitting under caution just 12 laps after his first stop, Herta replied: “It’s hard for us to know inside the car exactly what’s happening in the race, so it’s hard to answer that question.

“I think either way, we probably maximized our strategy. We pulled a good gap on everybody else, besides Alex. I was happy when we made that decision in the race that we ran to the end of it. It’s still unclear if that was the right call or not.”

Rossi, whose Arrow McLaren No. 7 was the only Chevrolet-powered car in the top six, converted that into being highest-placed Chevy runner in the race, his third place being his first podium finish of the year and only his second since joining McLaren in 2023.

“I think it was a good day for the organization,” he said. “I think our pace out front, pushing, was certainly better than what we could do once it switched to a fuel race.

“Nonetheless, it was a great job by the team all around to manage a difficult race with the strategy flipping back and forth. Kind of wild there with all the restarts at the end.

“I think we were able to just start strong this weekend. Obviously qualifying was strong for us. We know how important qualifying is to get a good result in this championship. We knew we had a good shot at it today.

“I was glad we were able to manage the race and have good pace kind of in all phases. It was a welcome change of pace. Hopefully it gives us a good foundation, good framework to go forward for what few road courses we have left in the year.

Regarding strategy, he said: “It’s hard for me to really comment on it right now because I need to look at the race trace and everything. But certainly I think we were quicker when we weren’t saving fuel, at least on the No. 7 car side. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t the right strategy for us. I honestly have no idea what Alex’s pace was in clean air. Until I know that, I can’t really answer it.

“But yeah, I mean, he was strong all day. We knew he was the car to beat, and was going to be hard to beat.”

Herta tops second IndyCar practice at Laguna Seca

Colton Herta of Andretti Global set the pace in IndyCar’s second practice at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, two-tenths ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power, after a session interrupted by three red flags. The session was only six minutes old when …

Colton Herta of Andretti Global set the pace in IndyCar’s second practice at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, two-tenths ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power, after a session interrupted by three red flags.

The session was only six minutes old when Christian Rasmussen, who had just turned the second fastest lap, shunted the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet at Turn 10. The IndyCar rookie and reigning Indy NXT champion appeared to clip the curb in the dip at the apex which unsettled the car. It thrashed its tail wildly before spearing across the gravel and into the tire wall.

When action resumed, 24 of the 27 cars hit the track immediately, which made it a busy track for almost all. However, Alexander Rossi of Arrow McLaren found space enough to go top with a 1m08.6153s, ahead of Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing and Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou’s teammate Dixon had a spin at Turn 11 after locking the rear tires, but recovered without causing a red flag.

However, the second flag took only a couple more minutes to arrive, as Sting Ray Robb got it all wrong under braking at the top of the Corkscrew and spun backward into the gravel, requiring the AMR Safety Team to tow him out.

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The session restarted with 30 minutes to go, and current points leader Power ran off the road between Turns 2 and 3 but just about kept it off the tires. Meanwhile, Kyle Kirkwood drew within two-hundredths of Rossi’s benchmark with a 1m08.6319s, and not long after, Marcus Armstrong became the fastest of the Ganassi drivers, with the third-fastest time.

Pato O’Ward had sat out the first half of the session after losing a set of primaries to flat spots in yesterday’s session, but when he did hit the track he looked spectacular and jumped into the top 10 with his second lap, then landed top spot, snipping 0.0655s off teammate Rossi’s time, then carved a 0.1474s margin — 1m08.4679s or 117.673mph. However, Herta — a two time winner here — went almost a quarter-second quicker with the first 118mph lap of the morning.

Palou plugged the gap between the former Indy Lights teammates but was still two tenths off Herta, while Scott McLaughlin, fastest yesterday, put Team Penske into the top three, shading the two McLarens.

With 15 minutes remaining, Power became Penske’s pacesetter with second, 0.2s behind Herta, while Dixon, apparently recovering from handling difficulties on Friday, jumped to sixth.

Then out came the third red flag, as one of Dixon’s Ganassi teammates, Kyffin Simpson, looped into the gravel on the exit of Turn 9. He didn’t make contact with anything solid, so the Safety Team didn’t take long to drag him out. However, finding clear track became a problem again in the eight minutes left, so only Rosenqvist (seventh) and Santino Ferrucci (18th) improved.

Thus Herta led Power, Palou, McLaughlin, O’Ward, Dixon, Rosenqvist, Rossi, Kirkwood and Armstrong.

Qualifying begins at 2.15pm local (Pacific) time.

RESULTS

Colton Herta makes shocking comment about IndyCar’s lack of penalties

Colton Herta makes a shocking comment about the NTT IndyCar Series’ lack of penalties. Find out what Herta had to say about it!

[autotag]Colton Herta[/autotag] came home with a seventh-place finish in the NTT IndyCar Series race at Road America, but it was a long journey. Herta spun out twice in the opening laps of the event and found himself in a situation where he needed to climb through the field. Meanwhile, Josef Newgarden and Linus Lundqvist, the drivers who spun him out, were not penalized.

Following the race, Herta spoke to Frontstretch about the lack of penalties for Newgarden and Lundqvist and used an eye-opening joke out of frustration. The Andretti Global driver was very annoyed about how the race transpired at Road America.

“I think I’ll have to bring a gun and shoot somebody in the head,” Herta said to Fronstretch. “And that’s the only way I can get a penalty [called] in [the NTT IndyCar Series]. So, like, it’s ridiculous. It’s insane to me.”

“[Josef Newgarden] just flat out hit me in the rear, no penalty, which is amazing to me how that’s not a penalty. And then [Linus Lundqvist] sideswiped me. I gave him a car-and-a-half on the inside into Turn 3 on the next restart and he ran out of talent and just took me out with him. And again, no penalty.”

Obviously, Herta was joking about what he said, but it will be interesting to see if the IndyCar Series does anything about it or lets it go. The comment comes after Arrow McLaren driver Theo Pourchaire received death threats after an incident with Agustin Canapino in Detroit. Herta may not have any repercussions, but it’s fair to wonder if the IndyCar Series agrees or not.

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XPEL GP at Road America Sunday race recap with Grosjean and Herta

RACER’s Marshal Pruett breaks down Sunday’s proceedings at the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, then interviews Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta about their races. RACER’s Trackside Report at Road America is presented by Radical Motorsport. As one …

RACER’s Marshal Pruett breaks down Sunday’s proceedings at the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, then interviews Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta about their races.

RACER’s Trackside Report at Road America is presented by Radical Motorsport. As one of the world’s most prolific sports car manufacturers, Radical Motorsport sets out to create a race-bred thrill-a-minute driving experience on the racetrack. Radical Cup North America is the continent’s premier Radical championship offering exhilarating multi-class Le Mans style racing for a fraction of the price. Click to learn more.

Herta’s string of bad luck continues into its third week at Road America

As the old saying goes, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all,” and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta has been living that line as his last three races have gone in every direction except the one he wants. It started with a solo crash …

As the old saying goes, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all,” and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta has been living that line as his last three races have gone in every direction except the one he wants.

It started with a solo crash during the Indianapolis 500 that left the Californian bristling in 23rd place; he was on pole the weekend after in Detroit, but cartoon anvils rained down throughout the rain—to complement the actual rain that fell—and he went from first to 19th at the finish. The newest kick to the crotch came courtesy of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who punted Herta on the opening lap in Turn 1 and spun his No. 26 Honda from his second place starting spot to 26th among the 27 drivers in the Road America race.

Herta refused to give in to the adversity and got to sixth place at the finish, which was positive in one aspect, but far short of what he envisioned for the day.

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“[I’m] mad, disappointed. The team did a great job again today, but this is three weekends in a row for me where I had a really good chance of winning, and whether the last three weeks it was self-inflicted or not, for one reason or another, we’re just standing here mad again, which does not feel good,” Herta told RACER.

The lack of penalty for Newgarden also added to his sour mood after climbing from the car.

“I would think that [one was deserved]. I got dumped to the back, almost lost a lap, and then it put me in the back with those guys, and then I got dumped again on the next restart, so I was just super frustrated,” he added.

“What came out of it, which actually helped us get to the front, was all those yellows; [we] were able to get into the pits and have so much more fuel than everybody that we could overcut by six laps, and we were able to show the true pace of this [car]. Twenty-seventh, up to about I’d say 24th, then back to 27th and then back up to sixth — you have to be somewhat proud about that, but I’m just not happy at all, really.”

How does Herta plan on releasing the three weeks of frustration? How about a visit to a famous local Elkhart Lake pub tonight with friends.

“I’m gonna go to Siebkins and drink beer,” Herta said, still cracking his post-race smile.

Herta shows the way in rainy second Road America practice

Rain started to fall 10 minutes before the start of Saturday morning’s NTT IndyCar Series practice session and the skies continued to shower the Road America circuit throughout most of the 45-minute outing. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was fastest …

Rain started to fall 10 minutes before the start of Saturday morning’s NTT IndyCar Series practice session and the skies continued to shower the Road America circuit throughout most of the 45-minute outing.

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was fastest in the No. 26 Honda with a lap of 2m7.3027s, well shy of the 1m43.2506s he turned on Friday to run second behind Alex Palou. Team Penske’s Will Power was 1.9s behind Herta in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevy, and thanks to a late run when the rain was at its lightest, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen moved the No. 20 Chevy into third, 2.2s back from Herta.

The first red flag was required when Palou spun and got stuck in the gravel at the 35-minute mark. The next red flag was required with 27 minutes to go when Pietro Fittipaldi went firing through Canada Corner—went straight at high speed—and got his car stopped just before nosing into the barriers. Alexander Rossi nearly joined him but got his car under control. At this point, 25 drivers had ventured out.

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Rain got heavy with 24 minutes to go and most drivers pitted as some climbed out and others had covers placed over their cars. A few chose to go back out as the intensity reduced with 12 minutes left, and more continued as the rare opportunity to work on rain setups turned the session into a valuable learning opportunity. As well, many of the newer drivers in the field have limited experience driving the Dallara DW12 chassis in wet conditions, so for some like Fittipaldi, the chance to drive his Indy car in the rain was welcomed.

“It was my first time, really, in wet conditions; we had a few laps in Detroit, but it was with the safety car,” Fittipaldi told RACER. “So this was my first proper wet track in this car and it was super slippery. The more laps you do, you start getting more temp in the tires, but what was difficult here is, the longer the session went on, the wetter it got. We couldn’t really test too much because we only did like five laps. But at least for me, it was just good to get some experience in the wet.”

Rain had almost stopped with six minutes left but another red was needed to sort out Kyle Kirkwood who spun and stalled, and once he drove back to the pits and the session resumed, a flurry of activity saw the top 10 undergo a few changes behind Herta and Power. No driver turned more than 10 laps and most kept their running to six laps or less.

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 3:25 p.m. ET, on Peacock.

RESULTS

Herta throws down a scorcher to snatch Detroit GP pole

Colton Herta captured Andretti Global’s first pole position of the season and the 12th of his career with a scorching lap of 1m00.547s in the No. 26 Honda at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. NTT IndyCar Series championship leader Alex Palou locked …

Colton Herta captured Andretti Global’s first pole position of the season and the 12th of his career with a scorching lap of 1m00.547s in the No. 26 Honda at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. NTT IndyCar Series championship leader Alex Palou locked out the front row for Honda in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing machine at Chevy’s home event (1m00.700s).

“Complete 180 and just super happy for the team,” Herta said after Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 ended with his car in the wall. “You know, they worked their tails off in the month of May and it was disappointing to say the least. To come back here for some redemption, man, it feels good.”

Palou didn’t think he had the speed to knock Herta off pole, but is confident for how the race might play out.

“Pretty happy,” he said. “The car’s been awesome since practice one yesterday and we’re able to fight during all segments in qualifying. Looking forward to tomorrow. It’s gonna be a busy, busy race, but with a fast car, everything is a little bit easier.”

New Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was best of the Chevy camp in the No. 2 Team Penske entry (1m00.961s) in third and teammate Scott McLaughlin took fourth in the No. 3 Chevy (1m01.334s). Ganassi’s Scott Dixon, in his 100th participation in the Firestone Fast Six, was fifth in the No. 9 Honda (1m01.391s) and Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was third heading into the final minute of qualifying, spun, stalled, and was dropped to sixth after his two fastest laps were deleted for causing a red flag (1m04.293s).

“Hats off to Andretti Global. They’ve given us rocket ships this weekend. I knew it would be hard to beat Colton, which is where the mistake came from. Just a mistake,” Kirkwood said.

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Qualifying opened with Theo Pourchaire leading the first group on track, followed by McLaughlin, Newgarden, Kirkwood, Will Power, and Santino Ferrucci who all moved on.

Behind them, Christian Rasmussen (13th), Romain Grosjean (15th), Alexander Rossi (17th), Rinus VeeKay (19th), Linus Lundqvist (21st), Kyffin Simpson (23rd), and Tristan Vautier (25th) were locked into their positions.

Grosjean, angered by Ferrucci who he said blocked him, jumped out of his car and sped down to Ferrucci’s A.J. Foyt Racing team to confront his frequent protagonist, but he was already gone.

Palou led the way in the second group with Christian Lundgaard, Herta, Marcus Ericsson, Pato O’Ward, and Dixon behind. On the outside looking in, Graham Rahal (14th), Pietro Fittipaldi (16th), Agustin Canapino (18th), Marcus Armstrong (20th), Felix Rosenqvist (22nd), Sting Ray Robb (24th), Helio Castroneves (26th), and Jack Harvey (27th) were done.

Rahal was sixth and about to go forward, but O’Ward knocked him out on his last lap. Rahal will have a six-spot grid penalty—as will Simpson—for unapproved engine changes once the order is set ahead of Sunday’s 100-lap race, which goes green at 12:45 p.m. ET on the USA Network.

The Fast 12 was settled with the top six of Herta, Kirkwood, Dixon, McLaughlin, Palou, and Newgarden. Dixon bumped Pourchaire (7th) at the finish line, followed by a livid Power (8th), Ericsson (9th), Ferrucci (10th), Lundgaard (11th), and O’Ward (12th).

O’Ward, trying to make room for a charging Kirkwood behind him, stalled with 3m45s left in the session, triggering a red flag, while holding seventh—before he could put in a quick lap. He’d lose his two fastest laps and drop to 12th.

RESULTS

Saturday morning dust-ups involve Herta, Ferrucci and Kirkwood

A Saturday morning pillow fight broke out on pit lane at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. The combatants in this mostly verbal exchange were A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci (pictured above) and the Andretti Global pairing of Kyle Kirkwood and …

A Saturday morning pillow fight broke out on pit lane at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. The combatants in this mostly verbal exchange were A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci (pictured above) and the Andretti Global pairing of Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta.

The matter at hand were the attempts by the trio to find clear space on the tight 1.6-mile street course to perform unencumbered laps to get reads on their cars before going into qualifying.

The opening salvo was produced by Kirkwood and Ferrucci as they approached a left-hand corner. With Kirkwood veering towards the right to setup for the turn, Ferrucci shot down the inside to pass Kirkwood and tried to get over to the right as much as possible to properly apex the corner, but Kirkwood started turning left and their cars made very light contact. The exchange incensed Kirkwood.

“Santino needs to be kicked out of the series,” he said across the radio to his No. 27 Honda team.

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Ferrucci and Herta also found each other during the same late-session window and the Foyt driver went to great lengths to prevent Herta from getting by in the No. 26 Honda to do a single-lap run in front of his No. 14 Chevy.

After the session, Kirkwood went to confront Ferrucci on pit lane and was grabbed and pushed backward by the Foyt driver before an IndyCar official separated them and moved Ferrucci rearward to the pit wall.

“You turned into me, you f***ing piece of s**t,” Ferrucci was heard saying on the broadcast. “Don’t ever do that again.”

Other than the grabbing of Kirkwood’s firesuit, the confrontation didn’t escalate into anything that could be confused with a serious physical altercation. To that end, Kirkwood laughed as he walked back to his pit box and the verbal pillow fight continued in separate interviews with the three participants.

“We’re in practice. I’m on a lap that’s gonna put us P3, right?” Ferrucci said. “I know everybody’s fighting traffic. I’m coming down the hill and who just turns into somebody and slides the car into you? I mean, it’s such a dickish move, man. I grew up karting with [Kirkwood], known him a long time. I’ve always been better with him than race craft, so I’ve never seen him do something like that. But you saw him turn into (Team Penske’s Josef) Newgarden yesterday. It’s a shame. It’s it’s tight track. We’re way quicker than this and it would have been nice to at least get one lap in.”

Told by NBC that Kirkwood placed the blame on him, the diminutive driver from Connecticut refused to back down and fired a homophobic shot at Herta for good measure.

“Well, if you go back and watch and you see him step on it and turn left, I don’t know what more evidence you need from that, man,” he said. “He’s got the onboard camera, not us. And then his little boyfriend teammate over there did the same thing. Leave it to them, man. We’re out here doing our own thing. You know it’s Detroit. I’m having a blast. Our crew’s all fired up. We know we’ve got a hot rod.”

NBC paid its next visit to Kirkwood, informing him of Ferrucci’s take on the situation.

“He said I did that?” Kirkwood said of being positioned as the guilty party in the contact. “Of course he’s gonna say that. Everyone stops here, right? Everyone has to wait, get your gap, get a clean lap in. It’s practice, relax. And that’s not what he did. He decided to do it to me; then he did it to Colton, nearly they collided. I don’t know what he’s doing.

“His lap was already ruined. He just ruined his next lap, too. It’s just dumb. It’s dangerous. He drove right into me, purposely tried to drive me into the wall. And then I went up and tried to talk to him about it. And then he grabs me, is like shaking me, like, ‘What are you getting mad at me for?’ It’s insane. But we’ve seen it before with him.”

Kirkwood shared what he was hoping to say to Ferrucci before the confab was interrupted.

“I was just going to tell him that’s completely unnecessary, like everyone needs to get their gaps, like everyone needs to get a lap in so you can try and tune on your car,” he said. “But if you’re crashing into people on purpose, then you’re not gonna be able to tune on your car, so it was just to see where his head was not because he clearly wasn’t on a fast lap anyways. It just makes no sense to me at all.”

The Floridian, who was the second-fastest driver in the session, had a snarky parting shot for the 20th-placed Ferrucci after being asked if he feared being raced more aggressively by Foyt’s pilot on Sunday.

“I think based on that, he’ll be a little bit behind us, so I’m not too worried,” Kirkwood said.

Herta swung the final pillow and brought Team Penske, which provides Foyt with technical support, into the chat.

“I don’t even know what I did,” he said. “I don’t know…that guy’s a head case. But I’m happy with our program. I’m not really sure what I did to make him mad. He passed me before the alternate line. Like, we’re all waiting for our gaps and he passed me, and so I passed him back and ruined his lap.

“He’s driving a Penske car to P20 again for the fifth consecutive weekend, so I’m happy with what we’re doing here. (Our) car is fast and we don’t have time for him and his shenanigans at the back.”

Herta leads feisty second Detroit practice

A frenetic 45-minute morning practice session for the NTT IndyCar Series on the streets of Detroit went as expected with locked brakes and cars stalled in or spinning their way out of the runoffs as they put in final preparations for this …

A frenetic 45-minute morning practice session for the NTT IndyCar Series on the streets of Detroit went as expected with locked brakes and cars stalled in or spinning their way out of the runoffs as they put in final preparations for this afternoon’s qualifying session for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. When it was over, Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was fastest, posting a 1m01.573s lap in the No. 26 Honda to lead teammate Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 27 Honda (1m01.738s) and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the No. 10 Honda (1m01.898s).

The top three were followed by two welcome surprises as Arrow McLaren’s Theo Pourchaire fired the No. 6 Chevy into fourth (1m01.943s) and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino went fifth fastest in the No. 78 Chevy (1m002.103s). Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin completed the top six with the No. 3 Chevy (1m02.112s).

Finding an opportunity to produce a single clean lap was a serious challenge for the 27 drivers.

“Thankfully I got one and it ended up being perfect and the tires were in the right temperature window,” Herta said. “You have to take the practice results with a grain of salt because there are guys that are really fast and just get screwed and don’t get laps. But luckily we were one of the lucky ones — I got to have a lap.”

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Christian Lundgaard set the first competitive lap of the session and before long, Canapino spent a brief moment at the top of the field. Kirkwood joined the party and then it was his teammate Herta who shot to first and stayed there and gave the team a 1-2. Palou was represented in third as the clock wound down to the last 10 minutes and soon he was joined by Pourchaire in fourth and Canapino in fifth.

The session cleared 44 of the 45 minutes without a need for a red flag, but Pourchaire stuffed the front of his car hard into the Turn 9 barrier and broke the front wing from his car. The session was duly flagged.

Marcus Ericsson’s struggles after his Friday crash persisted as his No. 28 Andretti Global Honda refused to depart pit lane. The car died altogether at the start of the session and while it eventually fired, it stalled while trying to leave. It took the better part of 15 minutes for the issue to be resolved and he was able to rise to 13th in the session.

A light clash between Kirkwood and Santino Ferrucci as they sought to create gaps for themselves to execute a clear lap resulted in contact as Kirkwood turned slightly towards the left as Ferrucci went by on the inside and was turning right to set himself up for the left-hand turn. Both cars were unaffected by the minor touch, but tempers flared.

“Santino needs to be kicked out of the series,” Kirkwood said to his team over the radio.

The Andretti driver went to confront the A.J. Foyt Racing pilot on pit lane after the checkered flag, and was met by a fiery Ferrucci who wasn’t having Kirkwood’s protestations.

“You turned into me, you f***ing piece of s**t,” Ferrucci was heard saying on the broadcast. “Don’t ever do that again.”

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 12:15pm ET, streaming on Peacock.

RESULTS

Some holding steady, others look to reset as IndyCar title battle shifts to Detroit

With the Indianapolis 500 in the rearview mirror, we return to the season-long focus that matters most to NTT IndyCar Series drivers as Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix launches a 12-race run to settle the championship. At the top, nothing has …

With the Indianapolis 500 in the rearview mirror, we return to the season-long focus that matters most to NTT IndyCar Series drivers as Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix launches a 12-race run to settle the championship.

At the top, nothing has changed after Indy with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou continuing to hold P1 in the standings with 183 points. Team Penske’s Will Power went into the 500 in second, but with his crash and poor finish and Scott Dixon’s strong run, the Ganassi driver moved to P2 (-20 points to Palou) and Power fell to third (-26).

Pato O’Ward’s runner-up finish for Arrow McLaren at Indy was helpful in the championship as it moved him forward three positions into P4 (-49), and with his crash, O’Ward’s former teammate Colton Herta from Andretti Global slipped to P5 but is tied on points (-49).

Sixth-place Scott McLaughlin from Penske is one of only two drivers along with Palou to enter and leave the 500 in the same position (-52), and the biggest mover of all is Indy winner Josef Newgarden who vaulted to spots from P17 to P7 (-61). Another strong 500 outing for McLaren’s Alexander Rossi came with an improvement from P10 to P8 (-63), and counter to Newgarden, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist lost the most positions among title contenders after starting Indy in P5 and finishing it in P9 (-67) after his engine failed.

Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood, the team’s best at the 500, jumped backwards from P8 to P10 (-68).

Altogether, it’s a Ganassi P1-2, a Penske P3-6-7, a McLaren P4-8, an Andretti P5-10, and MSR in P9 leading into Sunday’s 12:45pm ET green flag for 100 laps on the USA Network.

“You just have to take it as it comes and what we’ve been doing really well this year is just taking things slowly and not overstepping our boundaries,” Herta told RACER of Andretti’s reinvigorated championship bid. “Obviously, the goal is to win and I think we have a good chance at that this weekend here in Detroit. I had a really good car last year we tend to have really cars on the street circuits, so hopefully we put together a good qualifying get a good result for us and go from there.”

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Herta has rediscovered his form in 2024 after running 10th in the last two championships. Prior to his crash last weekend, every finish for Herta in the No. 26 Honda had been between second and eighth, which is why he’s holding fifth in the standings at the moment. Along with his growth and development as a driver, he sees the benefits continuing to play out after Andretti downsized its IndyCar operation from four cars to three in an effort to find more speed and efficiency.

“I’ve really only seen positives from it, having a lot more opportunity with the engineering side to take a little bit more of a breather and not have so much on their plate, being able to look at different reports that maybe we didn’t have before on the driving side,” Herta added. “I know it helps them a lot, for sure, with the main engineers and system engineers just to have an extra helping hand on race weekends, and back in the shop, especially on weekends like this when you’re coming off of a month-long Indy 500 and Indy GP. There’s no time to really prepare for this race so having that extra support really helps them get done with the 500 and get some work done early in the week going into this event.”

Herta is also happy to see how the relationship with Meyer Shank Racing, which uses race engineers, chassis setup information, and dampers supplied by Andretti Technologies, has flourished with the arrival of Rosenqvist to lead MSR. In what has been a one-way relationship for most of its arrangement, MSR and Rosenqvist have been helping Andretti to improve its overall game with the feedback and findings produced by the Swede in the No. 60 Honda.

“It helps a lot and that’s what we want to get out of it,” Herta said. “We want to have fast guys to help if we’re going the wrong way on setup, to come back to what they’re doing or see what’s working. Just to be able to understand what we might be doing wrong or what we can do better with Felix is definitely a value this year. It has been great to have him — as I’d guess you’d call him — a teammate. We’re all working together here.”