Herta, 23, started the 100-lap contest fourth on a set of the softer alternate (green sidewall) tires. Right at the start, he was able to jump up to third straight away after pulling to the outside of Pato O’Ward – on the harder primary (black sidewall) compound – entering Turn 1 that gave favorable positioning on the inside of Turn 2 to complete the pass.
From there, the California native held steady in the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda until the initial caution flew on lap 26 after Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong shunted in Turn 10. It set up pitstops that saw Herta switch to a fresh set of primaries and restart third on the restart on lap 30.
The following lap, though, he struggled with pace and dropped to sixth. Although Herta climbed back to third by lap 68, courtesy of an overcut call on pit strategy – which saw another set of harder primaries bolted on his machine – a caution the next lap delivered another challenging situation.
When the race resumed on lap 72, Herta pushed to hold the position but was ultimately, was left once again fading down the running order to fifth over the next two laps – where he remained through the checkered flag.
Rob Edwards, Andretti Global’s COO who also calls race strategy for Herta, admitted the race didn’t play out in their favor.
“We liked the primary, but we just seemed to be on them at the wrong time,” Edwards told Motorsport.com.
“Obviously, part of that was our choice to start the race, but then also when restarts happened, we were often in the place where we were vulnerable. Outside of that, really happy. Colton did a great job, the guys did a great job in the pits and yeah, first race, we'll build on it.”
Herta, who took honors as the top finisher for Honda, shared that the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit is notoriously difficult in getting the harder compound up to the optimum temperature.
“That's nothing new for this place or any street circuit,” Herta said. “There's a massive difference in speed getting up to temperature for like that first five or six laps, and maybe even more this weekend than usual.
“We needed to switch our tire plan a little bit, but from the start of the race, if it went green, we were looking really good on what we wanted to do.”
At the conclusion of the race, Motorsport.com overheard Edwards saying, “We’ve got the old Colton back” to his father, Bryan Herta. When asked what he meant by that, Edwards said: “He was calm. His intelligence in the cockpit, the communication, the way he's reading the race, just all top notch.”
