ELKHART LAKE, Wisc.– After two spins within the first few laps of Sunday’s XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, Colton Herta should have been happy finishing sixth in the seventh race of the 2024 IndyCar Series season.
Instead the California native was frustrated, because after starting in second place, Herta felt like he had the car to win the race and race control called no penalties against either of the two drivers that hit him and eventually dropped him to last place for a couple of laps.
“I think I’ll have to bring a gun and shoot somebody in the head,” Herta told Frontstretch on pit road after the race. “And that’s the only way I can get a penalty [called] in this series. So like, it’s ridiculous. It’s insane to me.”
As polesitter Linus Lundqvist exited turn 1 at the start of the 55-lap race, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Armstrong hit the No. 8 Honda from behind. Both drivers spun at the exit of the corner.
Herta immediately slowed down to avoid the spinning cars and Josef Newgarden hit the rear of his car. The No. 26 Andretti Global Honda spun and subsequently stalled in the middle of the track, requiring assistance from the safety team.
“I remember just everyone checking up on the exit of the corner,” Newgarden said in the post-race press conference after finishing second. “I sort of center-punched Colton. I hate that most likely affected his race. I’m sure he went spinning because of it. I don’t know why everyone checked up on the exit. I didn’t see that. I saw people going on the outside. I’m sure something was going on in front of him. It must have been.”
Armstrong received a penalty for the contact with Lundqvist but Newgarden received no such penalty for his lap first-lap collision with Herta.
After the lap three restart, Herta was on Lundqvist’s outside as the pair went to turn 3. They had contact that sent Herta off track, spinning in the grass outside the corner.
“Josef [Newgarden] just flat out hit me in the rear, no penalty, which is amazing to me how that’s not a penalty,” Herta told Frontstretch. “And then Lundqvist sideswiped me. I gave him a car-and-a-half on the inside into turn 3 on the next restart and he ran out of talent and just took me out with him. And again, no penalty.”
Race control called no penalty on Lundqvist and Herta’s accident, saying on the scanner audio that there was inconclusive evidence for a penalty. Lundqvist…
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