At the start of the race, Linus Lundqvist, a rookie, was in the lead. But Marcus Armstrong, his teammate from Chip Ganassi Racing, bumped into him as they came out of the first turn. This caused a chain reaction. Colton Herta, who was in second place but dropped to fourth, had to slow down because of the spin caused by the two drivers. Then, Josef Newgarden’s car hit the back of Herta’s car, making Herta spin and fall back to 26th place.
While Race Control gave Armstrong a penalty for hitting Lundqvist, they didn’t penalize Newgarden, who finished second.
“I just got punted by Josef,” Herta said after the race when he saw what happened on the replay. “I don’t understand how it’s a penalty for Armstrong right in front of him when he takes out Lundqvist, but I get the same thing done to me right here. It wasn’t even close. You see me slow down, he doesn’t even attempt to slow down, just dumps me. How that isn’t a penalty is beyond me. I don’t understand it, but that’s the decision they made and we’ll roll with it. It’s disappointing.”
Herta has had a tough time in the past few weeks. He crashed while in second place at the Indianapolis 500 and didn’t do well in the Detroit Grand Prix last weekend, despite starting from the pole position. Instead of getting a good result, he made a mistake and fell back in the race.
“It’s disappointing because this is the third week in a row, whether it was self-inflicted or not, but I thought we should win and we didn’t,” Herta said. “And the third week in a row where the Gainbridge Honda has been so fast and we have relatively nothing to show for it. I’m not happy with sixth place with the car that we had today with the pace that we had in the car. I don’t know what to say. Disappointing.”
During the race, Herta faced more problems. After the first-lap incident, debris from his car came out when he went over a curb. Then, he spun again after contact with Lundqvist. Even though he had to pit five times, more than those ahead of him, Herta still managed to drive well and even led for nine laps.
While Herta has five top-10 finishes, including two podiums, in seven races this season, he’s frustrated because he feels he could have done better. He wants to win races instead of worrying about points.
