Yahoo Autos Colton Herta's First Oval Win Finally Comes, Secures Him Second in IndyCar Championship
Many wins have slipped away from Colton Herta over the past few seasons, especially as he chased his first IndyCar oval victory on Sunday afternoon in Nashville; Herta finally won on an oval and propelled himself to second in the 2024 championship.
This was Herta's second win of the season, his first coming on the streets of Toronto.
With under ten laps remaining, Herta was gaining on Pato O'Ward, the de facto leader behind David Malukas, who still needed to pit. With five to go, the two leaders came up to Sting Ray Robb, running a lap down. Pato was forced to run high, opening up a lane on the bottom for Herta to pass Robb simultaneously; when the leaders met back up, Herta had the superior run onto the straight to secure the race lead.
After watching his race-winning move, Herta explained to IndyCar on NBC how he pulled it off.
"Sting Ray was there," Herta thanked. "[So]we had a pick to play off of. The whole race, I was getting all my passing down off of the corners, really able to drive middle to exit of the corner, get the power down really nicely. That’s just what that was. Luckily, we had just enough room between me and Sting Ray. There might’ve been a small nudge there. I had to use every bit of him to accelerate onto the straight."
Herta's win propelled him from fourth to second in the 2024 IndyCar Championship, past Penske Drivers Scott McLaughlin and Will Power. Once the race was underway, Power was the only driver with a chance to pass Alex Palou and steal the championship at the last moment. Unfortunately for the No. 12 team, Power's seatbelt came unlatched on lap 12, causing him to pit and come back out five laps down.
Palou, who controlled his own fate with his championship, finished 11th, 13 spots ahead of Power who was the last car running, eight laps down. This is the Spanish driver's third championship at only 27 years old.
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