New year, new pavement, and new speed. All of these melded together into a chaotic concoction of an IndyCar race at Road America. It was a day of spins, thrown gravel, and clouds of dust. That is the nature of the beast when you come to a freshly paved race track.
Early Incidents
It would only take the first corner for Road America to claim her first victim. Kyle Kirkwood went get into the back of Pato O’Ward, causing himself to spin. At the end of his spin, Kirkwood would stall his car bringing out the first caution
Once the race got back underway, cars were leaving the track left and right. Will Power, David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard, and Felix Rosenqvist would all be among the drivers that found themselves dropping tires off the track. Grosjean would add his name to the list on lap 12, but unlike the others, he was unable to recover and got stuck in the gravel. This would bring out the second caution. The third caution would come out coming back to the green from Grosjean spin. In a head-scratching manner, Harvey would bury the nose of his Honda in the tire barrier of the final turn before the full field could take the green flag.
Early Herta Domination
Herta spent much of the first half of the race unbothered at the front of the track. He would lead all of the first twenty laps and there was really no sign of anyone challenging him. All watching, at the track and at home, couldn’t help but think to themselves: Was this the day Herta finally gets back to his winning ways?
Pit Strategy Headscratcher
As the race began to wind down, it seemed that this was Herta’s race to lose. As it turned out, it was. With the final pitstop approaching, Herta’s crew confused everyone by setting out their tires a lap early. Colton would enter the pits one lap before everyone else. This means he had to save fuel during his final stint… which went about as well as you would expect. With Alex Palou lurking behind, and being fine on fuel for the final stint, it felt like it was only a matter of time before Herta would fall into Palou’s clutches. Bringing in Herta one lap early made zero sense and no one could really rationalize it.
Palou would get to the gearbox of Herta with 9 laps to go. For two laps, he would stalk Herta like a lion approaching its dinner in the Serengeti. With 7 laps to go, Palou would charge down the front stretch and move to Herta’s outside and get by him in turn 1. Alex Palou would never look back and win by several seconds over Josef Newgarden. Colton Herta would slip to fifth on a day that was his to lose. Alex Palou now takes a demanding 74-point lead in the championship over second-place Marcus Ericsson.
EDIT: My source inside the Indycar paddock informed me that Herta wasn’t in fuel-save mode because they came down pit road a lap early. Herta was in fuel-save mode because they didn’t get the car full of fuel on the last stop. Another unlucky break for Herta