Herta Takes First Oval Win In IndyCar’s Nashville Finale

Colton Herta (26) chases Pato O'Ward for the win Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway. (James Black/Penske Entertainment photo)

LEBANON, Tenn. – Colton Herta may not have won the championship war in the NTT IndyCar Series, but he topped the final battle of the season in dramatic fashion Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway.

With a daring, three-wide pass of Pato O’Ward in traffic with five laps left at the 1.333-mile concrete oval, Herta grabbed the lead for good and went on to victory in the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix presented by Gainbridge.

Appropriately, Gainbridge was Herta’s season-long anchor sponsor aboard the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda, but that wasn’t the only factor making the 24-year-old’s triumph memorable.

Not only is Herta – the son of Indy car driver-turned-strategist Bryan Herta – a Nashville resident after moving there from his hometown of Valencia, Calif., his ninth career Indy car win was also his first on an oval.

It was a box on Herta’s personal to-do list that he’d been impatiently waiting to finally check off.

“I’m so happy,” said Herta, who was out front for 24 laps in total. “We knew we were going to have a hot rod in the race. It’s been an amazing year. … Hoping to do a little bit better next year.”

Though Herta inherited the top spot from laps 161 to 179 after O’Ward made his final stop for fuel and a set of alternate, softer-compound Firestone tires, he had to make his own trip down pit lane with 27 to go for enough gas to get to the finish.

At that point, Herta bolted on four new primary Firestones, giving him the tire longevity that would ultimately propel him to the checkered flag.

As first Herta’s teammate Kyle Kirkwood, and then Meyer Shank Racing’s David Malukas, bailed from the front of the field when their fuel cells ran dry in the closing moments, Herta marched back up the running order and was on O’Ward’s rear wing at lap 202 when the duo cycled past Malukas.

It was then that Herta shot to the low side off the exit of turn two, when AJ Foyt Racing’s Sting Ray Robb washed up out of the groove and pushed O’Ward wide into the marbles.

Racing side-by-side down the backstretch, Herta powered past in turn three as O’Ward struggled to regain momentum on his dirty, worn-out tires. From there, the second-generation driver set sail.

Herta ultimately crossed the finish line 1.8106 seconds ahead of O’Ward, who was chasing his series-leading fourth win of the year but fell one position short.

“I wish I could have [defended] a little bit harder on him. Sting Ray facilitated that [pass by Herta],” O’Ward lamented. “A bit of a stinger to lose it that way. I would have liked to have at least fight him for a little bit [longer]. It was a pretty hectic race for our [No.] 5 car, though, to be honest. I had no idea where I was the whole race ‘til the end. … I just tried to continue pushing.

“Oh, my God, [on] those reds at the end, I couldn’t see straight with so much vibration [from the tires],” added the Monterrey, Mexico native. “I could barely talk to the team with just how much was going on in the car. Yeah, [it was] pretty gnarly in the end.”

Back-to-back Indianapolis 500 champion and two-time season winner Josef Newgarden, born in nearby Hendersonville, Tenn., completed the podium for his sixth top-three finish of the season.

Polesitter Kirkwood ended up fourth after leading a race-high 67 laps, followed by Scott McLaughlin, the highest finishing Team Penske driver in fifth.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist, and Malukas filled out the nine cars that ended on the lead lap.

Conor Daly closed out the season in 10th to give Juncos Hollinger Racing two top 10s in the final three races.

After starting 24th on the grid, Alex Palou finished 11th to secure his third NTT IndyCar Series championship in the last four years, as well as his second straight title.

Will Power, the only other driver mathematically eligible to win the Astor Cup entering the Nashville finale, lost five laps early and was eight laps down in 24th after having to pit under green for a disconnected seatbelt just 13 laps into the race.

However, it was Herta who ultimately finished runner-up in the season standings after his winning performance, while Power fell to fourth in the final rankings behind Herta and McLaughlin.

It was a satisfying ending for Herta, yet also bittersweet given “what could’ve been” had the early portion of his season gone differently.

“There are a whole bunch of things we could have done to win the championship this year. I think we’ll reflect on that and look at it going into the off-season, but to finish strong says a lot,” he noted. “It does hurt a little bit when you think about winning the last race, and knowing [Palou] didn't have a particularly strong one, so we could have made up a lot of points if we needed to in that championship fight.

“That’s something that we’ll look into in the off-season, is how to shallow out the dips and make them a little bit better. But right now, finishing second [in points] … that’s pretty cool.”

The 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season kicks off Sunday, March 3 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., with the annual Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The full 17-race schedule will be broadcast on new television partner FOX, kicking off a multi-year agreement, as well as the INDYCAR Radio Network and SiriusXM channel 218.