In the tenth race of the 2023 IndyCar season, Colton Herta earned his first podium of the year on the streets of Toronto.
He and his Andretti Autosport team employed the correct tire strategy during the 85-lap race, allowing him to climb from 14th up to third by the checkered flag.
Herta’s previous podium came at the Toronto event last year, and the 12-month podium drought was the longest he’s had in his five-year career.
He had scored the previous two poles, but was more than relieved to actually get a good race result to go along with his qualifying performances.
“It’s a little embarrassing it took this long,” said Herta. “We’ve had good cars all year, and just whatever has happened. It’s great to finally get that monkey off our back.
“I tried to have some goes at [Alex Palou] at the end of the race, but it was tough because I know every time I come out on to the straight and use that push-to-pass, I’m probably going to go up 6%, 7% of fuel mileage, and that’s going to destroy the race.
“Yeah, it’s tough when you are that car in the middle, and you have to try to attack but keep everybody else behind. So my main goal was trying to hold on to the podium, keep everybody behind before I was looking ahead to him.
“Hopefully we can continue this and go right back to having strong performances in qualifying and that just makes you race so much easier when you are able to race at the front, and the results come a lot easier at that point.
“We’ll dial in on that for the next race, and hopefully have two good ones at Iowa.”
Herta remains ninth in the points standings despite his good result this weekend, and is too far behind Palou to entertain any thoughts of a championship this year.
The next two races take place next weekend on the short oval of Iowa Speedway, a track that historically gives Andretti Autosport troubles with car setups.
