Tag: Colton Herta

Colton Herta, who scored his second straight pole position Saturday at Mid-Ohio, says the most vital thing the No. 26 Andretti Autosport team needs to do is to get everything right on one weekend.

Herta, for whom this was an 11th career pole, in four-and-a-half seasons of IndyCar racing, is still seeking his first podium finish of 2023. His most recent disappointment was at Road America, where he took pole and led the majority of the laps, but an early final pitstop left him vulnerable to attack as he saved fuel in his final stint, and fell to fifth.

Since then, Andretti Autosport has replaced his erstwhile strategist Scott Harner – who had himself replaced Colton’s father Bryan Herta on the No. 26 pit stand after the first round of the season – with team COO Rob Edwards. Harner now oversees the No. 29 Andretti car of Devlin DeFrancesco.

Herta used a fresh set of Firestone primary tires to edge Graham Rahal in the resurgent Rahal Letterman Lanigan team by just 0.043s around the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio course.

“Obviously we picked the right stuff today and had a competitive car, and yeah, I think the tire choice was kind of what set us over,” said Herta. “I think that was the right call.

“We were looking at (the difference between red-sidewall alternate tires and harder black-sidewall primary tires) all weekend. After practice one (switching to reds) didn’t seem like a big enough jump and it got a little bit bigger in qualifying than it was in practice. But we were in a position where we weren’t happy with our first set of (red) tires so we didn’t want to run on them and we didn’t want to run on our second, so we only had one choice, and it kind of made the choice for us, and I think it was the right one.

“I wasn’t sure if (66.3096s) was good enough. It took them like 30 seconds to tell me. Everybody went around again, so it could have gotten bettered. No, it ended up being good enough, and it was a good lap. I think I did pretty good with it.”

Regarding the change in strategist, Herta remarked: “It’s not how I would like to do it. You would want an off-season to prepare with one person, and unfortunately I never got that.

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“It’s nice that they’re open and willing to making changes, and they take everybody’s feedback, and they look it over. They truly want everybody on the team to do their best… We have the speed, and we just need to put together some race weekends as a whole. Hopefully we can do that.

“Obviously it’s been a struggle to do that pretty much all year. It’s pretty frustrating to be sitting here and having a best result of fourth and not really getting an opportunity at a podium.

“I’m happy that Rob is here. He’s been really good with me on the radio. But it’s not how he is on the radio — it’s all about strategy and what we can do with that. That’s the most important bit.”

Asked how much the tactical blunder at Road America had prompted the strategy change, Herta replied: “I think it had a little bit, but for that stuff, they’re obviously pretty critical on strategists after every race when they’re going over everything and they have their meetings and I’m sure they get drilled pretty good in those meetings if they make a wrong decision.

“But it’s tough. It’s just like the drivers; you’ve got to do it, and you’ve got to do it every time, and if you can’t, it sucks, but that’s the way it is.”

On the subject of a season of miscues, Herta remarked: “You can look back and say we could have done better here and there, but the best thing is just to learn from (the mistakes). I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot this year, just from my end, from everybody’s end. I would love to have just this weekend be super clean, get through, have a podium, hopefully a win — but just have a clean race, clean stops, clean everything, and then try to build on that.”

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Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta scored his second straight pole position of the IndyCar season, but the talking point of qualifying for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio came from Rahal Letterman Lanigan, who saw Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard make it into the Firestone Fast Six.

Firestone Fast Six

Alex Palou Palou and Herta elected to attempt their bids for pole position using fresh primary tires, while Graham Rahal started the session on primaries but then pitted for used reds. RLL teammate Lundgaard set a banker lap on used reds – a 66.7805s – then pitted for more used reds.

Rahal produced a 66.3528s to go top, with Palou’s first shot at him falling 0.0638s short. That was enough of a gap for Kyle Kirkwood to slot into second, just 0.0165s adrift from Rahal.

Then Herta spoiled the Ohio party, shaving 0.0432s from Rahal’s time to score his second consecutive pole with a 66.3096s on his primaries an average speed of 122.589mph around the 2.258-mile 13-turn road course.

"The Gainbridge Honda was flying."@ColtonHerta recaps his NTT P1 Award at @Mid_Ohio.#INDYCAR // #Honda200 pic.twitter.com/rADKBhEZdb

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 1, 2023

Still, RLL can be gratified to have their drivers line up second and fifth, split by Kirkwood – who has won here eight times in junior formulas — and runaway points leader Alex Palou.

Q2

Scott McLaughlin took the No. 3 Penske-Chevy straight out on used alternate tires, but his 67.1532s left him behind Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport, Christian Lundgaard of RLL and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, who set their initial times on primary tires.

Once everyone pitted for fresh reds, Graham Rahal produced a 65.9336s, although he was swiftly edged off top spot by teammate Lundgaard. The pair of them were bumped by Colton Herta’s 65.8576s but fell no further so graduated to the Firestone Fast Six.

So too did Kirkwood, Dixon and Alex Palou, but surprisingly neither Will Power nor teammate McLaughlin got through and will start from the fourth row, the highest Chevrolet-powered cars. Row five is all Swedish, Marcus Ericsson ahead of Felix Rosenqvist.

Q1 Group 2

Colton Herta produced a 66.2999s on Firestone primaries, with Scott Dixon, Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood drawing within a tenth of him before pitting for alternates.

Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan was the first to set a fast lap on reds, the Dane clocking a 65.8933s, an average of 123.363mph, although he had a slight slip-up on his next attempt at a flyer.

Kirkwood put Andretti Autosport on top with a 65.7240s, closely followed by Dixon, Herta, Lundgaard, Power and Rahal. Thus RLL had all three cars into Q2.

Surprise eliminations at this stage included Romain Grosjean, 0.156s behind Rahal, and Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong was a surprising 0.567s off top spot.

Q1 Group 1

Helio Castroneves went straight out on alternates at the start of the session, in the sole Meyer Shank Racing-Honda to take part in qualifying, following Simon Pagenaud’s monstrous crash this morning.

But it was Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet who first ducked under 67s, with a 66.9058s. However, a huge oversteer moment out of the Keyhole, Turn 2, turned into a spin to the inside, where he stalled and brought out the red flag. That cost him his best time, and meant he could take no further part in qualifying, so last year’s polesitter will start Sunday’s race from last.

The first segment continued with just over five minutes remaining, so everyone rejoined the track on their Firestone alternate compounds.

Alex Palou threw down a 66.0357s, and his teammate Marcus Ericsson responded with a 65.9252s to go top and immediately pitted.

Felix Rosenqvist clocked third, ahead of defending race Mid-Ohio winner Scott McLaughlin, but their respective teammates Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden missed out. As a sign of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s improvements, Jack Harvey did get through to Q2, as did David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD.

RESULTS

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