Polesitter Herta still secured his first podium since winning the rain-soaked Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May, but revealed that his job of pressuring Dixon and defending from third-placed Felix Rosenqvist was made difficult in the closing stages when his vision became limited by his hair.
“I couldn't really see much because my head sock broke,” said Herta.
“All of my hair went in front of my face. I could see Felix when I went through Turn 3.
“I could kind of judge the gap… I was having to look out the sides of my visor instead of in front.”
Asked if Rosenqvist had closed up on him because he had used up his tyres too much trying to keep up with Dixon, Herta responded: “No, honestly I think a lot of it was from the balaclava.
“It sounds like a lame excuse and I try not to make excuses. Yeah, I really couldn't see much.
“Regardless, even if I could see, Felix seemed to be really fast, kind of just on pace with Scott, and we seemed to have a little bit more [tyre] deg.
“I was starting to struggle there at the end where it looks like Felix was still able to get out of the corners and able to stay with me. Maybe he wasn't struggling as much.
“This head sock that I have has to hold back a lot of hair, so I can understand why it broke. It's the first time I've ever actually seen that or heard of that. I’ll go for the Felix trim next week!”
Herta insisted that the remedy would be “wearing a brand-new one every time I race” rather than get a haircut because “that would also solve things, but I'm not gonna”.
Herta also praised the Andretti Autosport team for the pace of its four cars after its farcical previous Mid-Ohio round was blighted by instances of intra-team contact.
Future Arrow McLaren SP driver Alexander Rossi was battling current AMSP man Rosenqvist when contact put Rossi into retirement, while fellow team-mates Romain Grosjean and Devlin deFrancesco reached the finish after qualifying inside the top 12.
“Andretti brought a really good package here, and it showed,” said Herta, who now sits eighth in the championship and 97 points from the lead with seven rounds to go.
“All the cars in top 12 in qualifying, got a pole, second-place finish. I'm happy with that. It's good to rebound with a result like this after Mid-Ohio.
“We really need to start racking up the podiums and wins if we want to have a shot at [the title].
“We are pretty far back… Might need a little bit of luck and a lot of good results, but we can do it.”
