Colton Herta becomes youngest IndyCar winner in history

Colton Herta snatched the IndyCar Classic win from Team Penske, making the Harding Steinbrenner driver the youngest winner in NTT IndyCar Series history.

Thanks to consistent pace and a lucky caution, Colton Herta is the youngest race winner ever in the NTT IndyCar Series.

Just days away from his 19th birthday, Herta snuck in to steal the inaugural IndyCar Classic away from Team Penske. It was also the first-ever win for his rookie team, Harding Steinbrenner Racing, and the first IndyCar win at Circuit of the Americas.

But it took a fair amount of luck, as well as speed, to seal the deal.

Penske’s Will Power dominated two-thirds of the race, leading every single lap and with a clear lead over Herta, who lurked in third behind Power and Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi.

However, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist brought out the caution with less than 15 laps to go after James Hinchcliffe of Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports contacted with Rosenqvist and sent the No. 10 car spinning into the wall.

That left Power, who’d yet to make his final pit stop, caught out by the yellow. And his situation was made even worse when his No. 12 car failed to start again after the stop — turning the pole sitter’s almost certain victory into him finishing dead last.

With Rossi also shuffled back in the field since he hadn’t stopped either, Herta assumed the lead and coasted ahead of Power’s teammate Josef Newgarden to secure his first win, in only his third IndyCar Series start.

So while Newgarden maintains his championship lead with two consecutive Top 2 finishes, most of the talk on Sunday is about Colton Herta, who kept his car in position to benefit from a caution and steal a win that earned him a place in the IndyCar history books.

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