Herta, who started from pole position, led the first stint of the race, but was surprised to emerge from the pits behind not only Alex Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda but also Josef Newgarden’s Team Penske-Chevrolet. While he spent much of the second stint trying to get around Newgarden, he had fallen 1.5sec behind the eventual winner as the second stops began.
Palou, who had made his first stop earlier than his immediate rivals naturally had to do the same for the second stop given that there had been no caution periods in the second stint. He stopped on Lap 55, and both Newgarden and Herta pushed hard on their in-laps to try and make up the deficit and jump the Ganassi driver.
While Newgarden was successful, Herta crashed into the wall on the exit of Turn 9.
“I just braked a little bit too late,” said last year’s Long Beach winner. “Got in there, locked the right-front and that was it. It’s just a stupid mistake.
“We were definitely in that thing, we were…
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