Colton Herta finished a career-best second in the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES points standings. He wouldn’t categorize the year as an outstanding season despite adding two victories, including the season finale Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway.
“It’s never a successful season if you don’t win a championship or win the (Indianapolis) ‘500,’” Herta said.
But Herta takes many positives from the season and could pinpoint several moments to build from that could carry him into championship contention in the 2025 season.
One is converting top-five finishes into consistent top-three results.
“It’s hard to win in this series,” Herta said. “It’s hard to demand wins. Just frustrates you when it doesn't happen, and it doesn't happen a lot more than it does happen, unfortunately for everybody.
“Just needing more consistent podiums.”
Herta had seven career wins and 25 top-five finishes entering this seasion, but only 12 of those top fives were on the podium. By comparison, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou had nine wins and 30 top-five finishes from his rookie season in 2020 through 2023, with 25 of the top fives on the podium.
Finding the podium is a key reason why Palou won championships in 2021 and 2023, despite having just two more career wins than Herta.
But Herta closed the gap significantly in 2024, equaling Palou in victories (two) and podiums (six) in 17 races.
While Palou took home his third championship in four years, including two in a row, Herta trailed by 31 points in the final standings. That gives Herta the potential to squeeze the last bit of performance from his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda to topple Palou in 2025.
Herta already went toe-to-toe with Palou over the final 11 races this season.
Palou finished fourth, first, second, 23rd, second, fourth, fourth, second, fifth, 19th and 11th, respectively, with a seventh-place average finish in that span. Herta finished sixth, second, fourth, 11th, fifth, first, fifth, fourth, 22nd, third and first, respectively, in the same races, averaging a finish of 5.8.
“If we take that step next year what we did from last year to this year, it would a huge improvement,” Herta said.
Herta would like to have a couple of races back.
One is the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, in which he crashed while running second on Lap 86 and was credited with 23rd place.
Another is the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart on July 13 at Iowa Speedway when Herta earned his first oval pole and led the first 86 laps. While running second, his car picked up a tire vibration. He was on pit road for a new set of tires when Palou crashed, forcing Herta to restart at the end of the lead lap. He finished 11th.
Reducing mistakes and another season of capitalizing on podium finishes could ensure Herta is a championship front-runner next season.
Herta also admits Andretti Global trimming its roster from four drivers to three in 2024 helped his season. Another year of heightened focus on just three cars can’t hurt in 2025, either.
“I think it was an important move,” he said. “I think it's a good move. I didn't know how it was going to going to play out having one less car and one less data point on race weekends. But then there's just so much more we can do and take so much off of guys plates, and they could really focus on a good two or three things rather than stressing and working until 3 a.m. on race weekends.”
Herta earned his first oval NTT P1 Award and victory in 2024 and looks like he could be one of Palou’s biggest threats next season.