Herta hangs on to claim IndyCar road win

WASHINGTON

Colton Herta overcame rain-slickened conditions and a host of rivals to capture May 14’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis for his seventh career IndyCar triumph.

The 22-year-old American was the first to switch to better-gripping wet tires at the start of the race and made a risky late pit stop to have them again, strategy moves that paid off with a victory under caution.

“It sure helped us a lot. We gained a lot of positions there,” Herta said. “Man this is awesome.

“That was the hardest race I think I’ve ever done. Wet to dry, dry back to wet.”

Herta won his first race since last year’s season-ender at Long Beach with France’s Simon Pagenaud second, Australian pole-sitter Will Power in third, Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson fourth and American Conor Daly fifth.

Rain and lightning delayed the start of the race by about 40 minutes at the 14-turn, 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which uses some of the famed oval layout where the Indianapolis 500 will be contested on May 29.

Changing weather conditions made for a chaotic atmosphere with teams trying to guess whether to use tires with more grip in the rain or slicker rubber for dry conditions.

That led to a wild race which was trimmed from 85 laps to a two-hour event.