Colton Herta's wish after qualifying pole? An 'easy race with no yellows' at Detroit Grand Prix
DETROIT — After a six-race start to his 2025 IndyCar season full of "what ifs" on race days and close calls on Saturdays, Colton Herta will finally have the best seat in the house to take the green flag for Sunday's Detroit Grand Prix, with hopes of turning his first pole of his season and 15th of his career into his first win of 2025, too.
The Andretti Global driver finished well over a tenth of a second ahead of A.J. Foyt Racing's David Malukas in the battle for pole Sunday, having had four Fast 6 appearances already this year but so far no poles, matching his pole performance a year ago on the 1.645-mile downtown Detroit street course.
But in the chaos of last year's race that featured eight cautions and 47 of 100 laps ran under yellow, Herta and the No. 26 Andretti Global crew faltered and fell back to 19th. Entering IndyCar's third race since the series' shift to the downtown street course track, Andretti Global and others are looking to knock Chip Ganassi Racing off the top step, with Alex Palou (2023) and Scott Dixon (2024) taking wins on the course thus far.
'We've been close a few times this year making it on a pole run, so I'm happy to do that and start P1 tomorrow,' said Herta, who's looking for his first podium finish of 2025. Entering Sunday, the Andretti Global driver's best finish of fourth came at The Thermal Club. Outside that, he's finished 16th at St. Pete after starting second, seventh at Long Beach after starting second and seventh at Barber after qualifying third, along with dismal runs during the Month of May at IMS (25th on the IMS road course and 14th in the Indy 500).
Entering Sunday, Herta sits ninth in points, 22 back of eighth-place Will Power, 36 back of his fifth-place teammate Kyle Kirkwood, 74 back of second-place Pato O'Ward and 186 of runaway championship leader Alex Palou.
'Now we just need a nice, easy race with no yellows,' said Herta, referencing IndyCar's run of three full races (and parts of two others) that ran without a single caution earlier in the season.
Among a Fast 6 that included Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard, Palou, Malukas and Graham Rahal, the battle for pole was essentially between the pair of Andretti Global teammates and Malukas, all three of whom had only used one set of Firestone alternate tires during Round 1 of qualifying instead of two like so many of their competitors had — done so they could better ensure they'd advance to the Fast 12.
Despite ending up tying his best starting spot of his IndyCar career in second, Malukas said he and his No. 4 squad expected to have a better shot at giving Andretti a serious run, but finished well back of Herta on their fastest laps (1:00.4779 vs. 1:00.6492). Kirkwood, too, felt he gave away an opportunity for his second pole of 2025, having been sitting four-tenths up on Herta's fastest lap with half a lap left before making enough wall contact to break a tow link that left him losing time in bunches on the final couple corners.
Entering Sunday, Kirkwood is the only driver to have finished ahead of Palou in the two-time defending series champ's only non-win of the year at Long Beach, where the Chip Ganassi Racing driver still managed a runner-up finish.
'I've never been more disappointed with third in my life,' said Kirkwood, who was stripped earlier this week of his sixth-place Indy 500 finish due to a post-race tech inspection failure. 'But congrats to Colton. I'm glad one of us got (pole), because it would've been really frustrating if neither one of us got it.
'I know I just threw away a pole, without a doubt, but our cars are fast, and that's what's really important. And I see no reason why we won't be fast once again (on Sunday).'
Starting fourth on Sunday, Lundgaard said after stepping out of his car he was proud to have finished as the fastest driver not to have used a new set of alternates in the Fast 6, as he looks to potentially overtake teammate O'Ward for second in points and with any luck chip away a bit at his 125-point gap to Palou.
Meanwhile, Palou, who finished 15th-fastest in Practice 1 Friday afternoon, was more than happy to settle for sixth in the Fast 6 after a whirlwind 48-hour media tour in New York City following his first career Indy 500 win on Sunday. In his five wins so far in 2025, Palou has started eighth (St. Pete), third (Thermal), pole (Barber and IMS road course) and sixth (Indy 500).
He'll start fifth Sunday, with Graham Rahal dropping back from fifth to 11th due to a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change.
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