Colton Herta wins a wet and wild GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The NTT IndyCar Series began the month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the GMR Grand Prix on the road course. Mother nature was a factor throughout the race, and it did not disappoint with lots of passes and crashes. It was a game of chess for all the teams.

Team Penske driver Will Power started the race on the pole, with Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou starting second.

Before the race started, IndyCar officials declared the track was wet, and everyone started the race on wet tires. Once the race officially started, it was chaos.

Pato O’Ward, who started in the fifth position, made his way to the front by passing Will Power for the lead at turn seven on the first lap. Then, as the weather somewhat cleared up, drying the track, Colton Herta gambled on the second lap to come to pit road for alternate (red) tires.

A lap later, everyone else came to pit road, and Felix Rosenqvist was the new leader exiting pit road, but Herta was right behind him. As Herta was trying to get the lead from Rosenqvist, his car went sideways, and he did a tremendous job keeping the car from going around. Meanwhile, Rosenqvist got loose at turn ten, and Herta took the lead.

The first caution of the race came out on the sixth lap. Alex Palou spun at turn ten in the grass and made his way back on the track, but the car stalled. Before the caution, Rinus VeeKay, Scott McLaughlin, and Romain Grosjean almost hit one another in a three-wide battle heading into turn nine. The race resumed on lap nine.

On lap 17, there was more contact, this time involving Josef Newgarden. First, Newgarden made contact with Alexander Rossi at turn twelve before getting hit by Jack Harvey, spinning Newgarden around and cutting his rear tires. The second caution was out a short time later for him. The race resumed on lap 20.

Another crash happened a lap into the restart involving Rinus VeeKay and Devlin DeFrancesco. VeeKay got loose at turn two, and DeFrancesco had nowhere to go, hitting VeeKay for the race’s third caution. Before the contact, Callum Ilott ran VeeKay off the road leading to the accident. The race restarted on lap 24.

During the restart, clouds started to roll in, leaving many drivers to come to pit road in anticipation that the race would end early. Marcus Ericsson was the new leader after Colton Herta made a pit stop on lap 32. Pat O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist, and Tatiana Calderon led laps before pitting themselves, and Ericsson took the lead on lap 36. The fourth caution came on the same lap when Dalton Kellett slid onto the grass and stalled.

When the race resumed on lap 41, the rain started to hit some parts of the track, particularly the front stretch. Cars were spraying mist, making it hard for drivers to see entering turn one. On lap 42, the Arrow McLaren SP teammates of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, and Takuma Sato hit one another at turn one, leading to the fifth caution.

Pat O’Ward’s car didn’t suffer significant damage, except for the front wing, which the team replaced. However, O’Ward went a lap down after repairs. Felix Rosenqvist’s car sustained minor damages to the front wing, and the team replaced it with a new one.

After the race resumed on lap 45, Colton Herta got the lead back from Marcus Ericsson. Two laps later, Jack Harvey ran Romain Grosjean off the road entering turn seven.

On lap 57, Jimmie Johnson was the latest driver to go around at turn ten, leading to another caution for the sixth time. Pato O’Ward was ahead of Herta before the caution came out and got back on the lead lap. Scott McLaughlin beat O’Ward off pit lane to take the lead during pit stops, with Herta sitting in third place.

Because the rain was falling heavier on parts of the track, IndyCar decided to make it a timed race with 20 minutes. Unfortunately, just before the race was ready to resume, Scott McLaughlin tried to warm up the tires and spun, leaving O’Ward as the leader.

Herta passed Pato O’Ward, entering turn one to take the lead, and never looked back on the restart. Unfortunately, for O’Ward, the gamble of staying on red tires instead of wet tires cost him. He spun around on lap 69 and went back a lap down after visiting pit road.

After Juan Pablo Montoya crashed at turn six, hitting the wall and damaging the left side. The race would end under caution. It was Herta’s first win of the season.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Simon Pagenaud second, Will Power third, Marcus Ericsson fourth, Conor Daly fifth, Felix Rosenqvist sixth, Takuma Sato seventh, Callum Ilott eighth, Christian Lundgaard ninth, and Scott Dixon tenth. There were ten lead changes and eight cautions for 31 laps.

“It sure helped us a lot. You know we gained a lot of positions later,” said Herta on pitting early for tires. “That was the hardest race I think I’ve ever done. Wet to dry, dry back to wet. Thank you so much for the Hoosiers for sticking around. I know you’re used to this weather, so thank you very much. Love you guys.”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t drive at the end. That’s unfortunate, the car felt really good in the wets, but I just couldn’t see,” said Simon Pagenaud, who started 20^th and finished in second place. “I was looking for lights on sides to find the breaking points, but it was treacherous at the end. It was really tough to finish the race.”

The NTT IndyCar Series’ next race is the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 29^th, at 11 am on NBC. Tickets for the race can be purchased thanks to our friends at StubHub.

Finishing Order: