Colton Herta

Colton Herta
Herta at the 2021 Grand Prix of Long Beach
Nationality	American
Born	(2000-03-30) March 30, 2000 (age 21) Santa Clarita, California, United States
IndyCar Series career
48 races run over 4 years
Team(s)	No. 26 (Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian)
Best finish	2020 (3rd)
First race	2018 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma (Sonoma)
Last race	2021 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach)
First win	2019 IndyCar Classic (Austin)
Last win	2021 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach)
Wins Podiums Poles 6 9 7
Previous series
2017-2018	Indy Lights

Colton Herta (born March 30, 2000) is an American open-wheel racing driver currently competing in the NTT IndyCar Series for Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian.^[1] He is the youngest person to ever win an IndyCar Series race.^[2]

He is the son of IndyCar and Champ Car driver Bryan Herta.

Early years[]

Karting[]

Herta made his karting debut in 2010 at the age of 10, racing karts in the SKUSA and IKF series, although he had been karting since the age of 6. He made his single debut at 13, finishing second in the SBF2000 Winter Series. In 2014, he made his formula car debut in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, finishing 15th in the championship despite missing the opening weekend due to age requirements. In the same year, Herta made his International Formula racing debut in Sepang, Malaysia with the AsiaCup Series, taking part in one event where he won 1 race win and 3 podium finishes. Herta also made a one-off appearance in the Global RallyCross Championship Lites, being the youngest driver to compete in the series.

Racing in Europe[]

In 2015, he made his debut in the UK-based MSA Formula series, as the youngest driver and the only American on a grid that consisted mostly of Britons, and got his first win in the second race at Snetterton Circuit in August, thus helping the United States win the Nations Cup. He went on to collect three more victories throughout the season, finishing third overall.^[3]

For 2016, he was planning to move to the newly renamed BRDC British F3 series but was too young to compete at the opening round.^[4] Wanting to complete a full season he made the switch to the Euroformula Open Championship, staying with Carlin and finished third in points, with four victories, six podium finishes, and five pole positions. Herta went on to compete in six British F3 events, earning three podium finishes including a victory at Brands Hatch.

Indy Lights[]

In 2017 Herta joined forces with the newly formed Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing to pilot the 98-car in the Indy Lights Series.^[5] He started the year strong with a second-place finish in the first race at St. Petersburg street circuit and followed it up with a Sunday victory; Colton's first win in Indy Lights. He got his 2nd victory at the next event at Barber Motorsports Park, the series' 400th race. Herta won Rookie of the Year and finished 3rd in the drivers championship.

In 2018, Herta remained in Indy Lights. He won four races, including all three held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (both races of the GP of Indianapolis and the Freedom 100 on the speedway). Herta finished 2nd in points to his Andretti teammate Patricio O'Ward.

IndyCar[]

Also in 2018, Herta debuted in IndyCar at the season finale in 1Sonoma with Harding Racing.^[6]

Harding Steinbrenner Racing[]

2019: Rookie Season[]

For the 2019 IndyCar season, Herta signed to drive the No. 88 Harding Steinbrenner Racing car. Herta was the first IndyCar Series driver born in the 2000s to start a race. On March 24, 2019, at the age of 18, Herta became the youngest-ever winner in IndyCar history by winning the IndyCar Classic at Circuit of the Americas.^[7] He qualified 5th for the Indianapolis 500, but retired after just four laps after a gearbox failure. On June 22, 2019, at the age of 19, Herta became the youngest-ever pole-sitter at Road America. The driver won again at Laguna Seca, and finished 7th in the overall standings, just 5 points behind Rookie of the Year Felix Rosenqvist.

Andretti Autosport[]

2020: Sophomore Season[]

Herta again drove the #88 car for Harding Steinbrenner Racing in 2020, with additional backing from Andretti Autosport. Herta finished 7th in the opening round of the 2020 IndyCar season at Texas Motor Speedway. He finished 8th at the Indianapolis 500. On September 13, 2020, Herta won the second of two races held at Mid-Ohio. He scored a runner-up finish at the Indianapolis road course's Saturday race. With seven top 5s in 14 races, he ranked third in points.

2021: Three More Wins[]

Going into 2021, Herta was seen as the strongest challenger in the Andretti stable to Scott Dixon for the IndyCar title. For 2021 Herta would move from the #88 Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Racing car to the #26 Andretti Autosport with Curb Agajanian car with backing from Indianapolis 500 title sponsor Gainbridge. Herta started his season caught up in an accident caused by Josef Newgarden in Alabama but earned his first win of the season at St. Petersburg, his first win on a street circuit.^[8] The rest of the season proved to be a struggle for Herta. He would only secure two podium finishes before his second win of the season; a second-place at Road America and third place at the second round on the IMS Road Course. He was frequently beset by poor strategy, mechanical issues, and driving errors. Most notable of these was at the inaugural round in Nashville; Herta would qualify on pole position for the race,^[9] lead most of the race, lost the lead under caution to Marcus Ericsson, and crashed out of the race attempting to take the lead back from Ericsson in the closing laps.^[10] Herta would pick up his second win of the season at Laguna Seca, where he led all but one lap of the race to win from pole.^[11] He finished the season off with a come from behind victory on The Streets of Long Beach when he started fourteenth and worked his rapidly through the field to take the lead from Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon to win his third race of the season. He ultimately finished the season fifth in the championship standings.^[12]

2022[]

After intense speculation that he would be making a move to Formula One Andretti Autosport and Herta announced that he would be racing in IndyCar in 2022, partnering Alexander Rossi, Romain Grosjean, and Devlin DeFrancesco.

Sports Car Racing[]

Herta participated in the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona in a BMW M8 GTE for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Colton, along with co-drivers Connor De Phillippi, Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng, won the race in the GTLM class.

Racing record[]

Career summary[]

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2012-13	SBF2000 Winter Series	N/A	12	1	1	0	4	287	6th
2013	Pacific Formula F1600	PR1/BHA with Curb-Agajanian	15	10	6	10	15	413	1st
2014	GRC Lites	AD Racing	1	N/A	0	N/A	N/A	16	15th
	U.S. F2000 National Championship	JAY Motorsports	12	0	0	1	0	115	15th
2015	MSA Formula Championship	Carlin	30	4	3	8	12	355	3rd
2016	BRDC British Formula 3 Championship		6	1	0	1	3	109	19th
	Euroformula Open Championship		16	4	5	4	7	199	3rd
	Spanish Formula 3 Championship		6	2	2	1	4	94	2nd
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	13th
2017	Indy Lights	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing	16	2	7	3	7	300	3rd
2018	Indy Lights		17	4	3	7	13	447	2nd
	IndyCar Series	Harding Racing	1	0	0	0	0	20	37th
2019	IndyCar Series	Harding Steinbrenner Racing	17	2	3	2	2	420	7th
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - GTLM	BMW Team RLL	3	1	0	0	2	89	14th
2020	IndyCar Series	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport	14	1	1	0	2	421	3rd
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - GTLM	BMW Team RLL	3	0	0	0	0	79	9th
2021	IndyCar Series	Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian	16	3	3	2	5	311	5th
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - GTD	Turner Motorsport	2	1	1	1	1	285	50th

Complete Euroformula Open Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2016	Carlin Motorsport	EST 1 Ret	EST 2 5	SPA 1 6	SPA 2 5	LEC 1 18	LEC 2 EX	SIL 1 2	SIL 2 Ret	RBR 1 1	RBR 2 1	MNZ 1 16	MNZ 2 4	JER 1 1	JER 2 4	CAT 1 2	CAT 2 1	3rd	199

American open-wheel racing results[]

U.S. F2000 National Championship[]

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
2014		STP	STP	BAR 19	BAR 7	IMS 5	IMS 20	LOR 14	TOR 5	TOR 14	MDO 10	MDO 16	MDO 13	SNM 7	SNM 9	15th	115

Indy Lights[]

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2017	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing	STP 2	STP 1	ALA 10	ALA 1	IMS 12	IMS 10	INDY 13	RDA 12	ROA 3	IOW 4	TOR 4	TOR 10	MDO 2	MDO 6	GMP 3	WGL 3		3rd	300
2018	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing	STP 3	STP 8	ALA 2	ALA 3	IMS 1	IMS 1	INDY 1	RDA 1	RDA 2	IOW 2	TOR 7	TOR 6	MDO 2	MDO 2	GTW 2	POR 2	POR 4	2nd	447

IndyCar Series[]

(key)

Year	Team	Chassis	No.	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2018	Harding Racing	Dallara DW12	88	Chevrolet	STP	PHX	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET	DET	TXS	RDA	IOW	TOR	MDO	POC	GTW	POR	SNM 20	37th	20
2019	Harding Steinbrenner Racing			Honda	STP 8	COA 1	ALA 24	LBH 23	IMS 23	INDY 33	DET 12	DET 12	TXS 18	RDA 8	TOR 7	IOW 18	MDO 8	POC 16	GTW 9	POR 4	LAG 1	7th	420
2020	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport				TXS 7	IMS 4	ROA 5	ROA 5	IOW 19	IOW 19	INDY 8	GTW 4	GTW 6	MDO 9	MDO 1	IMS 4	IMS 2	STP 11				3rd	421
2021	Andretti Autosport		26		ALA 22	STP 1	TXS 22	TXS 5														5th	455
	Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian								IMS 13	INDY 16	DET 14	DET 4	ROA 2	MDO 13	NSH 19	IMS 3	GTW 18	POR 8	LAG 1*	LBH 1*
2022	Andretti Autosport				STP TBD	TXS	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET	ROA	MDO	TOR	IOW	IOW	IMS	NSH	GTW	POR	LAG	-	0

Indianapolis 500[]

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2019	Dallara	Honda	5	33	Harding Steinbrenner Racing
2020	Dallara	Honda	10	8	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport
2021	Dallara	Honda	2	16	Andretti Autosport

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2019	BMW Team RLL	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	BMW S63 4.0 L Twin-turbo V8	DAY 1	SEB 7	LBH	MDO	WGL	MOS	LIM	ELK	VIR	LGA	PET 3		14th	89
2020	BMW Team RLL	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	BMW S63 4.0 L Turbo V8	DAY 5	DAY	SEB	ELK	VIR	ATL	MDO	CLT	PET 6	LGA	SEB 4		9th	79
2021	Turner Motorsport	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8	DAY 6	SEB	MDO	DET	WGL	WGL	LIM		LGA	LBH	VIR	PET	50th	285

References[]

External links[]

• Colton Herta driver statistics at Racing-Reference