Valencia’s Colton Herta willing to take risks for Indianapolis 500 victory

A month later, Herta was nonchalant about the April wipeout. In the moment, he tugged helplessly at the rim of his Gainbridge helmet, his car still sputtering on the asphalt. It was disappointing. Heartbreaking. But when you’re young and fearless, mistakes happen.

“It’s nice, that feeling of getting back in the race car,” said Herta, a native of Valencia. “I always felt like that was a strong suit of mine, of being able to push that to the side and focus forward on what the next thing is.”

The thing is, longtime engineer Nathan O’Rourke said, his team encourages him to be aggressive.

“He’s going to be able to handle that risk … he’s able to do things with the car that most drivers can’t,” O’Rourke said.

Colton Herta drives through Turn One during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 on May 21.

(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)

Bill Auberlen is the winningest driver in IMSA SportsCar Championship history. And even he has no idea how Herta does it.

“He’s small, and he’s frail, and he’s tiny,” Auberlen said before the Long Beach Grand Prix. “You think, ‘How’s this guy going turn the steering wheel?’”

But Herta is “super fast,” last year’s IndyCar champ Alex Palou said. And he’s not afraid to be.

Auberlen is close friends with Bryan Herta, a former teammate in sports cars. After teaming up with Colton Herta at the 2021 Rolex 24 at Daytona, the IMSA legend immediately called Bryan.

“‘That’s probably the best race car driver I’ve ever seen in my entire life,’” Auberlen told him about his son.

Herta was known as his father’s son growing up, he said. Bryan Herta raced both sports cars and Indy cars in a career that spanned 16 years, notching four open-wheel wins.

In modern times, though, Bryan is his son’s father. Herta put himself on the map with his first-ever IndyCar win at Circuit of the Americas in Austin in 2019 — at age 18, the youngest in IndyCar history.

“I knew I had to fight and prove that I belonged there and earn the respect of everybody, especially the veterans,” Herta said. “But I never felt intimidated getting into the car.”

In due time, Herta might give a new set of veterans a run for their money. Tabbed to test-drive Formula 1’s 2021 McLaren car later this year, there’s an ever-growing buzz that he might fill a spot for an American driver.

“I even told Colton, ‘If any American gets the opportunity to go to Formula 1, it’s got to be you,” Auberlen said.

His fellow IndyCar drivers endorse the idea — even Pato O’Ward, a rival young series star who’s hoping for a shot himself. Racing in F1 would leave an American a fish out of water. But it’s always been a dream of Herta’s.

“It’s a challenge that I’m up for, for sure,” he said.

Colton Herta sits on the pit wall following practice for the Indianapolis 500 on May 17.

(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

He knew he had to take a risk.

After two consecutive top-five finishes in the IndyCar standings, Herta’s fifth year in the series was off to a disappointing start. Mired in the middle of the rankings, the Acura Grand Prix was his chance to climb back. But after the wall scattered part of his car’s front wing into specks of stardust across the Long Beach asphalt, Herta was eliminated.

“Just overdid it a little bit today,” he said in a television interview.

It was déjà vu. Herta used that exact same phrase — “overdid it” — after a devastating wreck last year in Nashville. In that race, on Lap 75, Herta crashed and didn’t finish while trying to catch winner Marcus Ericsson. He was in second place at the time.

“Especially at the highest level, still pretty early on in my career, still constantly learning a bunch,” Herta said.

Learning. But not being scared to fail. Herta and his team knew, heading into the GMR Grand Prix on May 14, that they had to start winning races. A poor qualifying run, placing him 14th to start, only made his situation more dire.

As the cloud-blanketed sun began to set on a gray afternoon, sheets of Indiana rain slicked the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Most cars pressed on with their Firestone rain tires, mandated for the start.

Not Herta.

“I knew we had to be aggressive,” Herta said.

On the third lap, Herta and his father made the decision to pit and swap out rain tires for dry, thinking they could gain ground to jump a few positions. He jumped, in fact, to the front.

Colton Herta celebrates on the podium after winning the IndyCar Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 14.

(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

But around a bend, as his tires dug for traction on a wet surface, Herta began drifting toward the grass bordering the track.

In the month since, he’s experienced flashbacks from Long Beach behind the wheel. If his grip had been better — if his car was angled six inches farther — perhaps he never hits the wall. Perhaps he’s named a back-to-back winner. But it happened, and position, Herta’s learned, is everything.

So, yards away from a burnout, his fast hands took hold. He spun the wheel fully around to the left, sending the car into a drift lasting seconds but feeling like minutes, skidding forward with the nose pointing in the wrong direction and miraculously whipping back into place.

“Some guys might not have been able to handle that,” O’Rourke said. “But honestly, most guys wouldn’t have pushed that hard, either.”

Amid buckets of rain, Herta went on to beat the field to earn his first win of the season.

“It seemed 50-50 to me on whether it was the right call or not,” Herta said of the early tire switch. “It ended up being a very good call.”

His next challenge looms Sunday, the Indy 500 being the most important race of the year. After engine trouble in qualifying, Herta will start an unremarkable 25th, leaving him with ground to make up.

That may only mean one thing — more aggressive moves. And Herta and his team won’t shy away from it.

“That might end up in a crash, but it’s definitely more worth the risk to do those types of moves,” O’Rourke said. “I think that’s going to be his approach.”