Herta Wins INDYCAR Pole At Fast But Tricky Road America
Image by Travis Hinkle, Penske Entertainment
Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta proved unflappable Saturday, taking pole for Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America presented by AMR despite two off-track excursions in practice and another in qualifying.
Herta’s lap of 1:40.1945 was good enough for his tenth career NTT P1 Award. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was second quickest at 1:40.3643. Championship leader Alex Palou was third at 1:40.4930, a solid effort for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver after going off-track in the morning practice session and making hard contact with the Turn 14 tire barrier.
But even after Friday’s practice session, Road America’s new pavement remains a difficult puzzle to solve, according to Herta.
“I had more problems today than I did yesterday as far as off tracks and whatnot. I think it's just difficult. It's hard to get the cars in the operating window. It seems like some cars like different tires than others.
“It's just a very strange feeling, at least for me, inside the car. I'm sure it's different team to team and whatnot. For me it's a very strange feeling at the wheel. I think it shows by how many guys have been kind of trickling off the track, just having weird spins.”
“For me, it’s been one of the tougher tracks to get ahold of. It’s almost like there’s very little feedback from the wheel, so you’re seeing guys spin, just don’t really know it’s going to happen, which was the way it was for me a few times.”
In the morning practice session, Herta went wide exiting Turn 7 and spun through the grass without hitting anything other than a cardboard sign. That incident, plus two others, didn’t phase Herta.
“No, because it's a lot tougher when you hit something. When you just spin, go off, have a spin, it's really not that big of a deal. I did it again during qualifying, right?
“For me, it's been one of the tougher tracks to get ahold of. It's almost like there's very little feedback from the wheel, so you're seeing guys spin, just don't really know it's going to happen, which was the way it was for me a few times.
“But, yeah, it's a feeling that seems to be going away the more and more we run. Obviously the speed is there in the track. They did a great job with the repaving. Super smooth. Obviously the more rubber that goes down, we're just going quicker and quicker and quicker.”
Image by Chris Jones, Penske Entertainment
Road America’s ultra smooth new track surface has been the topic of the weekend, with the racing line full of grip, but treacherous off of it. Making it harder to see where rubber has been laid is the still dark color of the recently repaved track, according to Herta.
“You can see it in some places. It's more like debris than anything you can see off the line. But, yeah, it's very treacherous off the line. It's going to make it interesting to see if guys are going to defend into (Turn) five or if guys are going to try to pass and it's going to happen.
“We're braking so late now at all those corners, braking is probably 175 feet before turn five, 180 to 60 miles an hour. The grip is insane right now that the track is producing.
“It's only the line. Once you get half a tire width off of it, you can't recover it because you're going so fast.”
So, what does than mean for Sunday’s race? O’Ward isn’t sure.
“I don't know, man. I think obviously the following will be different to what it's been in the last few years just because offline, the car’s balance just goes upside down if you go offline.
“I think that's obviously going to make passing tricky. It will make guys trying to get a bit of cleaner air on at least half of their wing. There is a penalty to pay for that. It doesn't seem to pay off yet.
“Yeah, I see it being there's maybe a lane and a half of, like, very high grip. But you go off of that, and it's like ice. I think that's also why there's just been a lot of excursions. You miss it by just a tad, and it's like, What happened to the car?
“To extract the lap time, especially now with the new pavement, like there is so much more grip, but it's only in the line. You have to commit so much into the corners where a lot of the times it kind of bites once you're already committed. I think that's why you see a lot of spins, a lot of guys going off, just a lot of random snaps. It makes you feel like there's unlimited amounts of grip, but there's obviously limits to everything.”
Image by James Black, Penske Entertainment
Given the number of cars off-track during practice and qualifying on Saturday, O’Ward does see an “eventful” race on Sunday.
“Yeah, I mean, I think it gets really sketchy when you've got the cold tires and you're fighting a car that's a lot heavier than what it is in qualifying. I think that's where it can get really, really tricky. That's usually in the pit stop sequences. That's where a lot of the passes either are made or are lost.
“I mean, do I see it being eventful? Absolutely. I don’t know how chaotic it will be in terms of yellow (flags). Obviously looking back at what it was today, it looks pretty savage.
“I don't know. I think it will be a learning curve to a lot of us. I do think the (tire) deg compared to last year, it should be less, but I might completely have missed it. So who knows.”
“I mean, do I see it being eventful? Absolutely.”
With all the uncertainty going into Sunday’s race, Herta says starting up front may not be as beneficial as it seems.
“It definitely helps in some aspects. In other aspects, it doesn't, right? If you have a tire that is going to deg highly, starting up front, you tend to try to make it work even if you don't think it might be the fastest options. Guys in the back can dump two and change tires and get onto a better set, which we've seen in years past at Detroit when the red (alternate) tire is falling off.
“It's still unclear to me what tire is going to do what, to be honest. I think it could go either way where it could have massive amounts of deg or it could be very stable and very good.
“I'm keeping both options open. Definitely have a better understanding after (Sunday morning) warmup, after we can run reds and the blacks for a longer period of time than just two laps.”
After Saturday’s incident-filled day, the key to Sunday’s race may be just who can stay on the track.