Colton Herta Drifts to Win Rain-Soaked Grand Prix of Indianapolis

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Photo: Penske Entertainment / Chris Jones

The Month of May is underway at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The NTT IndyCar Series raced today on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the GMR Grand Prix. The race start was brought forward to avoid thunderstorms, but then it was delayed back to the original time due to lightning. The threat of rain overall was the focal point of the race.

Penske’s Will Power started on pole but lost the lead by the end of the Hulman Boulevard back straight on the first lap. Power was three-wide with his teammate Josef Newgarden and Ganassi’s Álex Palou. This allowed Palou to take the lead. And as Power pushed Newgarden off the track, McLaren’s Pato O’Ward moved up to second place in spectacular fashion. It wasn’t long until McLaren had a 1-2 at the front, but the racing surface wouldn’t stay wet for long.

As track conditions improved, Andretti’s Colton Herta was the first driver for dry weather tires. Herta’s pace immediately proved to the rest of the field that they should also stop. Herta was able to undercut McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist and passed Pato O’Ward after drifting through Turn 8.

Things would start getting really out of hand on Lap 42 of 85 as the rain finally came. O’Ward attempted to pass Herta into the first corner on a restart, and they made contact. Pato spun directly into Rosenqvist’s path, damaging his teammate’s front wing. There was a seemingly never-ending stretch of cautions as drivers lost control in the dynamic conditions. And, at one point, Penske’s Scott McLaughlin got the lead on a race off pit road and then spun just before a restart.

Colton Herta won the GMR Grand Prix after the final caution was thrown with less than two minutes remaining. Juan Pablo Montoya put his McLaren into the wall and destroyed the left side of his car. It was honestly frustrating to see the race constantly stopped because teams actively chose to be on the wrong tire to maintain track position and hope the weather changed in their favor.