Herta targeting “strong Sundays” after Detroit IndyCar pole

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Colton Herta has outlined the need for better race days after a season of unfulfilled potential for the No.26 Andretti Global team so far in 2025.

The 25-year-old American secured a 15th career IndyCar pole position, first of the 2025 season and second in succession on the streets of Detroit on Saturday. It is a fifth top-four qualifying result of the year inside seven races. 

But despite this Saturday form, Herta is ninth in the championship standings with a best result of fourth and only three top 10s in six races.

“Ultimately we have been really strong on Saturdays and we have not on Sundays,” Herta said. “That’s the goal of this team - we need to put together Sunday. It’s been frustrating for everybody just to have so much pace and have no results. 

“We should have the ability to have some wins this year. We have a good chance right now. We’re really just focused on doing the right things for ourselves. If we get screwed some way or another [in Detroit], that’s the way it’s going to go. 

“But we’ve just got to put together a good Sunday from what we can do.”

Herta’s season has been plagued by misfortune, mistakes on pit lane and some issues on-track too. Most recently in the Indianapolis 500, Herta recovered from 27th - following his heavy practice crash - into the top 10 before being dropped back down the order by a pit speed violation, ultimately finishing 14th.

“I think we can all do a little bit better,” Herta said. “We’ve been taking it really seriously in our post-event stuff - not make the same mistakes twice, which I don’t think we have. But either way, it’s something that we all want to do better with.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Herta had come close to pole in the first four rounds, qualifying on the front row at St. Pete and Long Beach, third at Barber and fourth at Thermal. He managed to find the extra level of execution required at Detroit for his first P1 Award since Toronto last July.

“I just put it together better,” Herta said. “We’ve been doing good but I don’t think I’ve put it together completely in the Fast Six like I did today.

“Friday [practice] was pretty bad from us as far as what we’re used to on street courses - just the feel of the race car. So Friday night to go over everything and turn everything around, the engineering group did a great job with that. Happy with how it went.”

With Herta’s teammate Kyle Kirkwood - pole-sitter and winner at Long Beach in April - qualifying third, it was further proof of Andretti’s strength on street courses. But the 1.645-mile Detroit circuit may be the most challenging of all.

“It’s very different,” Herta said. “As far as the 90-degree corners, they are proper, proper 90-degree corners. Whereas you look at a place like Long Beach, even the 90-degree corners aren’t exactly 90 degrees and the exits and everything are shaped a little bit different. 

“This is definitely a very true downtown street circuit. And the bumps, it’s very similar to where we were in the past at Belle Isle. It definitely gives it character. Without the bumps, this place wouldn’t be as much fun and it wouldn’t be as much of a challenge.”

With a pole lap clocked at 1m 0.4779s, Herta eclipsed his own lap record at the third-year Detroit track. This comes despite the additional weight of the hybrid system, which is appearing in Detroit for the first time this weekend.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“I was worried,” Herta said of his track record. “I was like: ‘Oh man.’ After Friday I was hoping nobody broke the track record.

“The feeling is similar [with the hybrid]. I don’t get a sense of it being slower anywhere. And obviously we have a really long [0.7-mile] straight so the power output of it would have a bigger effect than, say, St. Pete or even Long Beach because the back straight here is so long. 

“I feel like it closes that gap up a little bit. I think the tyres that we have are probably softer than what we ran here last year and are activated a little bit quicker.”

The softer alternate tyre has led drivers to want to change to the preferred primary compound as soon as the minimum two-lap alternate stint is complete in street course races this year. 

In cooler conditions in Detroit, Herta believes stints in the race could be extended a little - possibly up to 15 or 20 laps. But it is likely drivers will still want to ditch the alternate tyre as soon as possible.

“I think it’s going to be very similar to previous races on street courses,” Herta said. “It’s going to be difficult strategy-wise just because of the amount of yellows that you get here. It favours the people at the front, I think, so I’m glad that we qualified well.”

The tightness of the track means cautions - even with only two in five races before the Indy 500 - are inevitable. There have been 15 yellow periods between the two 100-lap races at the new Detroit track, with 32 caution laps in 2023 and 47 caution laps in 2024.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“This is a place that promotes pretty good passing as far as street courses go,” Herta said. “And crazy strategy. We’ve seen the past two years with a lot of yellows so anything can happen. 

“We really need to be on top of every scenario that’s going to happen and really understand that tonight. Maybe that’s a little bit less [cautions] with the hybrid from what we’ve seen this year. But maybe not.

“That could definitely be a killer of races. You could get trapped in some yellows. So we just need to understand the best way to go about that and protect ourselves.”