Colton Herta won Saturday’s storm-plagued, ramblin/gamblin IndyCar Series race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield road circuit.

It was his first victory of the season for Herta and came when a mixture of rain and wrecks forced INDY officials to invoke the two-hour time limit on the race, which was originally schedule for 85 laps.

“This is the hardest race I think I’ve ever done,” Herta said. “Wet to dry, dry back to wet. Thank you so much for the Hoosiers for sticking around. I know you’re used to this weather, so thank you very much. Love you guys.”

Simon Pagenaud climbed from the 20th starting position to finish a season-best second in the No. 60, giving Honda-powered cars a 1-2 finish.

Will Power placed third to move into the series points lead.

“Cars were dropping like flies,” Power said. “It was such a hard choice on whether to get the slicks, which could have been the best strategy out there – or go for the wets. It’s so crazy, this place. When you look around, it can be completely raining on the frontstretch and you go around to the back and it’s completely dry. It was really anyone’s guess at what was going to happen. We got to the point where it was too wet, we were going to get caught out and we needed to take wets. I’ve had races here where we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to rain, and it just doesn’t rain. The cell just stops there. There must be some kind of vortex in the Speedway here that just doesn’t allow weather.”

Marcus Ericsson drove from 18th at the start to end up four while Indianapolis native Conor Daly finishing a season-best fiftth.

“I’ve never been in a race like that in my life,” Daly said. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced.”

The weather and the threat of rain forced several team to gamble when it came to tire selection. Some went with wets at the wrong time while others sent with drys at the wrong time.

Herta was able to pull  away from Pagenaud over the closing laps. And take the checkers at the two-hour mark.

“It was treacherous at the end,” Pagenaud said. “You’ve got to say congrats to Colton because it was really tough to finish the race. We made the right calls on the tires. It was tricky. It was really tricky to decide.”

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INDIANAPOLIS – Results Saturday of the GMR Grand Prix NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (14) Colton Herta, Honda, 75, Running
2. (20) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 75, Running
3. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 75, Running
4. (18) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 75, Running
5. (4) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 75, Running
6. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 75, Running
7. (13) Takuma Sato, Honda, 75, Running
8. (7) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 75, Running
9. (8) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 75, Running
10. (21) Scott Dixon, Honda, 75, Running
11. (16) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 75, Running
12. (24) David Malukas, Honda, 75, Running
13. (9) Jack Harvey, Honda, 75, Running
14. (19) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 75, Running
15. (25) Tatiana Calderon, Chevrolet, 75, Running
16. (12) Graham Rahal, Honda, 75, Running
17. (10) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 74, Running
18. (2) Alex Palou, Honda, 74, Running
19. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 74, Running
20. (11) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 74, Running
21. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 73, Running
22. (27) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 73, Running
23. (15) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 73, Running
24. (23) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 72, Contact
25. (3) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 60, Running
26. (22) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 53, Contact
27. (26) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 34, Contact

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 90.008 mph
Time of Race: 02:01:56.3273
Margin of victory: Under caution
Cautions: 8 for 31
Lead changes: 10 among 6 drivers

Lap Leaders:
O’Ward, Pato 1 – 2
Rosenqvist, Felix 3 – 4
Herta, Colton 5 – 31
O’Ward, Pato 32
Rosenqvist, Felix 33 – 34
Calderon, Tatiana 35
Ericsson, Marcus 36 – 45
Herta, Colton 46 – 59
McLaughlin, Scott 60 – 64
O’Ward, Pato 65 – 66
Herta, Colton 67 – 75

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Power 170, Palou 156, McLaughlin 152, Newgarden 140, Dixon 133, Herta 132, O’Ward 126, Ericsson 117, Grosjean 114, VeeKay 113.

 

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