Despite having three of their four cars in the top 10 for much of the PPG 375, Andretti Autosport only managed a best finish of 7th from Colton Herta as all three of their other cars were involved in incidents, including a pitlane miscue for Kyle Kirkwood, an agonizing crash for Romain Grosjean with just two laps to go, and another wreck that potentially deprived Devlin DeFrancesco of his first IndyCar top 10.
Herta was the one car unscathed, and was running up front all race, leading four laps before his tyres began to fall off. Perhaps understatedly, Herta said “we probably could have done a little bit better,” but “we’ll take a top-10 finish and set our sights on Long Beach.”
Photo credit: Penske Entertainment | Joe Skibinski
Grosjean was in the lead pack and led a couple of laps, but the Frenchman hit the wall out of turn 2 when running in 5th position with two laps remaining.
“Obviously, the end result is difficult to digest, but the positive takeaway is that we were up there all race fighting for the lead.”
Photo credit: Penske Entertainment | Joe Skibinski
While most of the attention Kirkwood garnered was a result of his collision with Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi in the pitlane, it was an unrelated suspension failure that ended his day.
“It was disappointing because we thought we got the No. 27 AutoNation Honda into a good window after that first pit stop. I think we could’ve been right there with Colton and Romain fighting for the lead at the end of the race.”
Photo credit: Penske Entertainment | Joe Skibinski
As for DeFrancseco, he was putting together what might have been a career-best finish until wrecking on lap 222 and taking Graham Rahal out with him in the process after hitting the wall on the exit of turn 2.
“We need to get the monkey off our backs. Two DNFs in two starts, when we’ve had a good car, isn’t a good way to start the season,” said the Canadian driver.
Photo credit: Penske Entertainment | Joe Skibinski
The team is confident of their pace, and COO Rob Edwards expects that to come out at Long Beach next weekend.
“We’ve shown speed in St. Pete and Texas, so we’ll take that and get ready to do battle again.
