Colton Herta delivers Andretti’s first IndyCar victory of season at Mid-Ohio

By Sep 13, 2020, 2:38 PM EDT
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Colton Herta became the second consecutive NTT IndyCar Series driver to win from the pole position at MId-Ohio Sports Car Course, capping a podium sweep Sunday for Andretti Autosport as the team scored its first victory this season.

Starting first just like Saturday winner Will Power, Herta, 20, led 57 of 75 laps and finished 1.3826 seconds in his No. 88 Dallara-Honda ahead of teammate Alexander Rossi for the third victory of his career.

Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay finished a season-best third, followed by Graham Rahal and Marcus Ericsson.

“I’m so happy, we’ve been knocking on the door almost every week,” Herta told NBC Sports pit reporter James Hinchcliffe. “We’ve had the pace, but for some reason or another, something has gone wrong. We finally put everything together. Got the pole this morning, had a stellar car, and Honda Andretti 1-2-3.”

In the previous 10 races this season, Andretti Autosport had managed only two podium finishes, both third places by Rossi. Sunday’s trio of podium results marked the first 1-2-3 finish for the team in 15 years since a 1-2-3-4 finish in April 2005 at St. Petersburg, Florida.

“It’s so huge,” team owner Michael Andretti told Hinchcliffe after his team’s 65th IndyCar victory. “Man, 1-2-3, after the way things have been going for us this year. This is huge for us, the whole team.”

Said Rossi after his season-best finish: “I’m just so happy for Andretti Autosport and Michael. It’s been a terrible year for us globally. To do this, huge hats off to Colton and the 88 guys but then to sweep the podium is very cool for us.

“The championship went away from us very early on, so we’re just focused on race wins and really trying to build a good foundation for next year, and we’re doing that now. It’s a step in the right direction. We’ll enjoy this one for sure.”

The rest of the top 10: Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon, who nipped Rinus VeeKay on the last lap for 10th.

The championship race tightened after Dixon made a mistake and spun while running fifth on Lap 22.

Trying to chase down Herta while under pressure from Rossi and Hunter-Reay, Dixon clipped a curb off Turn 1 and lost 15 spots.

After entering the weekend with a 96-point lead over Josef Newgarden in the standings with five races remaining, Dixon’s lead shrunk by 24 points after consecutive 10th-place finishes in the Saturday-Sunday doubleheader at Mid-Ohio (which historically had been one of his strongest tracks with a series-high six victories).

“Got a little aggressive, hit the overtake (button) on the exit of (Turn) 1 and just way too much Honda power there, and it spun the tires and just spun the car,” Dixon told NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast. “Totally caught me off guard. Total rookie mistake. I’m so bummed for the team. Such a stupid mistake I shouldn’t have made. Obviously the car was fast and able to fight our way back, but it should have been an easy points day.”

Dixon said he won’t be laying back heading into the final three races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course doubleheader and the Oct. 25 season finale at St. Petersburg, Florida.

“The easiest way is to win Race 1 at Indy road course and same in Race 2 and be nice to go to St. Pete without having to worry about it,” Dixon said. “The series is so tight right now. The competition is super tough. Even trying to rebound off days like this is very tough.”

After a chaotic qualifying session, the first lap of Sunday’s race also proved eventful.

Santino Ferrucci, starting second, received a penalty for avoidable contact after running into Dale Coyne Racing teammate Alex Palou. The crash also collected Felix Rosenqvist.

Ferrucci attempted to pass leader Colton Herta on the outside into Turn 1 but skidded through the grass and then re-entered the track by hitting Palou.

“He was the outside, and I got halfway in front of him, so it was my corner at that point,” Herta said. “I tried to leave him as much room as I could, but he just wanted to stick on the outside, so I had to push him off.”

“I think we just have to look at the video,” said Palou, who is battling for rookie of the year with Rinus VeeKay. “I did a good start. I was just keeping the position I had. It was the first lap. Someone went out and just drove into me and Felix. Nothing we could have done.

“Disappointing because I couldn’t do anything, and it’s the first lap of the race. And we’ve had such a hard season to now with all the ovals and learning those. We’ll just look forward to the Indy GP.”

Ferrucci was sent to the rear of the field.

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

By Mar 20, 2023, 5:05 PM EDT
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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan
Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

Lawrence defends Deegan
A block pass by Haiden Deegan led to a series of events that eventually led to Jordon Smith failing to make the Main. – Feld Motor Sports

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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