IndyCar Driver Colton Herta Hopes for Better Result at Nashville Than Last Year

• IndyCar Series hits Nashville for the second year this weekend, on a temporary street course that runs through the downtown area.

• Last year, Colton Herta started from pole but crashed out after leading almost half the race.

• Herta generally does well on permanent road courses and temporary street courses and hopes for a better result this year.

Like the old Doobie Brothers hit, IndyCar is “Takin’ It To The Streets” again this weekend in the second annual Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, held on a temporary street course in downtown Nashville.

Last year’s inaugural race was one of the most frustrating events ever for Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta. He started from the pole, then dominated the race, leading nearly half of the 80 laps—39 to be exact.

Disaster struck, however, with six laps to go as Herta tried to dive-bomb his way to close in on race leader and eventual winner Marcus Ericsson. Herta came into Turn 9 too hot, locked up his brakes and slammed into the tire barrier, ending his day with a dismal 19th-place finish and dropping him to eighth in the standings.

While he would go on to win the season’s last two races (Laguna Seca and Long Beach), it would be too little, too late for the second-generation IndyCar driver, who—due to that wreck and three other DNFs in the 16-race season—ultimately finished fifth in the final season standings.

Now, Herta wants to avenge last year’s mishap and win Sunday’s event—which is the fifth race in the last 22 days (IndyCar’s next race is August 20 near St. Louis).

“So much,” Herta said when asked how much he wants to avenge last year’s disaster. “It's an awesome market for IndyCar. I wish it came sooner. It's so much fun to be downtown, right there in the heart of Nashville, and an awesome track with its unique challenges compared to a lot of the street courses that we go to, and it seems like we're going to have a lot more unique challenges this weekend if it ends up raining like the forecast says.”

Herta has become an ace on permanent road courses and temporary street courses. Of his seven career IndyCar wins, five have been on permanent road layouts (Austin, twice at Laguna Seca, Mid-Ohio, and the Indianapolis road course), with wins on the street courses at St. Petersburg and Long Beach.

In addition, he earned the pole and finished second in the most recent road course event, just a few weeks ago at Toronto. All told, in addition to his seven wins, Herta has four additional podium finishes, all on road or street course layouts.

That's why he’s looking forward to returning to Nashville, but with a much better outcome this year than what happened last year.