Colton Herta feels he missed out on victory at Laguna Seca, finishing third at the Monterey GP.
Herta enjoyed a feisty race at Laguna Seca, showing flashes of speed that rivalled the all-conquering Alex Palou.
Running behind the Chip Ganassi driver in the early stages, Colton Herta stalked Palou’s strategy. However, he fell back to third by the chequered flag, after the McLaren of Christian Lundgaard passed him in a spectacular move.
Speaking in the post-race press conference, Herta reflected on his podium and battle with Lundgaard for second place.
“Yeah, it was fun”, Herta said. “At the end of the race, too. I think it was — I kept him on his toes at the end. Unfortunately, he got by me in that pit exchange. It’s fun. When you get to race here, when you have deg like we did, and it opens up lines and allows more raceability, it makes this place a lot of fun.
“For me, this is my favorite racetrack in the country, and it really is a treasure every moment that we get to bring INDYCAR here. It’s a super track. It deserves INDYCAR, and really it needs INDYCAR. We go well together.”
“Love racing INDYCARs here. Love the ability that the track kind of weathered and opened up lines, and now you can race here a lot better than the last two years. I think it shows it’s earned its spot on the calendar this year.”
Finding hope despite missing out on victory
Despite losing second place, Colton Herta believes Andretti took a step forward at the Monterey GP, closing the gap on Palou and Chip Ganassi.
“I think we could compete with him. Obviously the first stint, the tire offset, you saw how big of an offset it was. We were reeling him in when we were on the other side of it, and at the end on the restarts I felt just as strong as him.
“He didn’t really pull away from us too much. I felt like I had his pace, but again, having his pace and being able to do it the whole race and overcuts and undercuts, it’s a different thing.
“Again, they drove a really good race, and they were very fast, but I think we had similar pace. We were close. Maybe not enough to overtake, but definitely a step in the right direction.”
. Colton, it looked like, other than the lead, there were some lively moments throughout the race where there was some good, hard racing. How did it look from your standpoint?
Herta also revelled in the wheel-to-wheel racing at the Monterey GP, hoping for more in the final races of the season.
“I would say it was — nothing was really going on until maybe the last half of the race for me. Once we got the undercut by Christian and we were able to battle with him, that’s kind of when my race came back alive. For a while there it was just me on the reds, Alex on the blacks, just trying to run him down.
“Then when we got undercut, it opened up for us to — opened up a new race for us. You know, I love the racing part of this.
“I love the racing aspect. Even when it doesn’t go our way, the wheel-to-wheel battling in INDYCAR is a lot of fun. I definitely treasure it. I really enjoy it, but hopefully next weekend we can be on the better outcome of it.”
