Herta made a perfect start, leaving Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Newgarden to fend off Chip Ganassi Racing’s highest starter, Palou, which he succeeded in doing. Behind them, Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy and Alexander Rossi (Andretti) fell in line in fourth and fifth, while the big mover at the front of the field was another Ganassi car, that of Marcus Ericsson, who muscled past Will Power’s Penske and Grosjean’s Andretti entry to take sixth.
Herta had pulled a 2.3sec lead on Newgarden by the start of Lap 6, when Dalton Kellett’s AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet struck the Turn 1 tirewall, bringing out the first yellow.
