AUSTIN, Texas – Ever since he arrived in the IndyCar paddock as an Indy Lights Series driver at the age of 16, Colton Herta had the look of a future winner.
Two years later, the son of four-time IndyCar race winner Bryan Herta is the youngest winner in Indy car history.
Herta was a surprising, yet very deserving winner of Sunday’s Indycar Classic at Circuit of the Americas. He becomes the youngest winner of an Indy car race at 18 years, 11 months and 25 days. Graham Rahal was 19 years, 3 months and 2 days when he won the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in 2008.
Herta started fourth and raced his way to third to hang with the two front runners for most of the race. Those were pole winner Will Power, who led the first 45 laps in the 60-lap contest, and Alexander Rossi, who was sizing-up Power in an effort to win the race in the final stages.
As the final round of pit stops began, Rossi wanted to go one lap longer than Power, splitting the two front cars in an attempt to make the race-winning pass on his pit stop. Power, aware of Rossi’s strategy, decided to stay out as every other driver on the track made their final stop.
That strategy was foiled when James Hinchcliffe ran into the back of rookie Felix Rosenqvist’s Honda, sending it into a crash intTurn 20. That brought out the only caution period of the race and Power and Rossi were essentially hosed.
Herta was now in the lead, but 2017 NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden was on his tail. Herta needed a good restart if he was going to win the race. That’s exactly what Herta got.
Herta built up a lead to more than four seconds before finishing the race 2.7182 seconds ahead of the Team Penske driver.
“What a hell of a rollercoaster,” Herta said. “What a race. I’m worn out.
“On that last restart, I was thinking, ‘What do I do?’ I’ve never done a restart on (Firestone) Reds, so that was a new thing for me. I think we had good pace early on and faded at the end of the stints. With only 10 laps to go and no wear on the tires we were in a really good place.”
Newgarden could not close the gap and the winner of the season-opening race two weeks ago at St. Petersburg settled for second, which maintains his lead in NTT IndyCar Series standings.
“It was a good event,” Newgarden said. “I enjoyed running here. I’m glad we got a second place. The guys did a great job just didn’t have enough for Herta there. Fun race! Really good crowd here at Circuit of the Americas for this event.
“Ryan Hunter-Reay and I were just trying to catch Colton – that’s what we could do.”
Herta won in a Honda followed by Newgarden’s Chevrolet. Positions three through seven were all Hondas including Hunter-Reay in third followed by Graham Rahal, Sebastien Bourdais, Marco Andretti and Takuma Sato.
The top four drivers in the race were all from the United States.
Power’s doom was sealed when he couldn’t continue in the race after a drive-shaft failed on his No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. He started on the pole and could have won a $100,000 bonus if he had won the race. Instead, Power finished last in the 24-car field. Rossi got booted all the way back to 15th place, but raced his way back to ninth after the race went back to green with 10 laps left.
Power was frustrated about finishing last in a race where he was never passed.
“I just released the clutch snap and I could kind of hear it grinding together,” Power said. “I’m massively disappointed, man; like you lead all those laps and worked so hard all weekend to put yourself into position. If the yellow (flag) didn’t get us, the driveshaft did. Another hole at the beginning of the season.
“But the guys have done a great job. We’re quick every weekend. Oh, I just want to have a good run, man. I just want to have a normal run in a season without this sort of crap.”
As IndyCar’s youngest winner, Herta has even more goals to achieve as his career is just beginning.
“I’ve been bit by the bug now,” Herta said. “One race isn’t enough. I’m going to go for another one at Barber. Just want to get there and drive again.
“It was a really good job by everybody. The boys did a really good job on the stops the whole day. Everybody did a good job.”
The victory was also the first for Harding Steinbrenner Racing, co-owned by Mike Harding and 22-year-old George Michael Steinbrenner IV, the son of current New York Yankees co-owner Hank Steinbrenner and the grandson of legendary former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
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