IndyCar: The greatest upset race victory of all-time

By Asher Fair | Mar 4, 2019

HOUSTON, TX - JUNE 28: Carlos Huertas of Colombia, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Dallara Honda celebrates winning the Verizon IndyCar Series Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Race #1 at NRG Park on at Reliant Park on June 28, 2014 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /

With the 2019 IndyCar season scheduled to get underway in under one week, take a look back at what is arguably the sport’s greatest upset victory of all-time.

Every sport has its upsets, but no two upsets are alike. Naturally, some upsets are greater than others. Even though it did not take place in the Indianapolis 500, one particular IndyCar upset blows the rest out of the water.

On Saturday, June 28, 2014, 23 drivers competed in the first race of the Shell-Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston doubleheader, which was the ninth race of the 18-race 2014 season. This race was scheduled to be a 90-lap race around the 10-turn, 1.683-mile (2.709-kilometer) at NRG Park Stadium Circuit in Houston, Texas.

No one could have possibly expected what happened over the course of the next two hours.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Simon Pagenaud earned his first career pole position for this race, but he led only its first four laps of what had officially become a timed race due to rain. This race now had a 110-minute time limit.

After Pagenaud led the race’s first four laps, the race was dominated by A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Takuma Sato, who started it in sixth place, and Andretti Autosport’s James Hinchcliffe, who started it in fifth.

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Sato led the next 22 laps after taking the lead away from Pagenaud, but six laps later, he was involved in an accident with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Mikhail Aleshin, taking him out of the race. At this point, Hinchcliffe had led five of the last six laps, as Dale Coyne Racing’s Justin Wilson was able to lead one lap as a result of the fact that he made a later pit stop than Hinchcliffe.

Hinchcliffe led 31 consecutive laps, giving him 32 laps led in the race, when he made his final pit stop under a caution flag period that took place when Team Penske’s Will Power was involved in an accident.

Wilson and rookie teammate Carlos Huertas decided to attempt to stretch their fuel loads to the end of the race with the clock ticking down. Neither one of them came into pits when Hinchcliffe and the rest of the leaders did with slightly under 25 minutes remaining in the race, and they ended up moving up to first and second place, respectively, as a result of it.

Wilson led the next 14 laps of the race, but he had to come into the pits for fuel. As a result, he relinquished the race lead to Huertas, who was making only his ninth career IndyCar start. At this point in time, there were just under seven and a half minutes remaining in the race.

With just over four minutes remaining in the race, KV Racing Technology’s Sebastian Saavedra was involved in an accident, causing another caution flag period to ensue.

At this point in time, Huertas led the race ahead of Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya in second place, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Tony Kanaan in third, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in fourth and Andretti Autosport’s Carlos Munoz in fifth.

Huertas, who still needed to save fuel to make it to the end of the race, was in a position where he needed to hold off a hungry Montoya, who was searching for his first victory in his first season competing in IndyCar since 2000 after spending several years competing in Formula 1 and the NASCAR Cup Series.

With under one minute to go in the race, the green flag was set to come back out to begin a one-lap shootout for the victory. However, before the green flag came back out, Rahal ran into the back of Kanaan, spinning him out and preventing the race from continuing.

With the caution flag still out even after the leaders crossed the start/finish line for what was supposed to be the race’s final restart, the time expired. Shortly thereafter, Huertas led Montoya, Rahal and Munoz across the start/finish line during the race’s final caution flag period to earn arguably the greatest upset in IndyCar history.

Rahal was issued a 30-second time penalty for running into the back of Kanaan before what would have been the race’s final restart. As a result, Munoz was promoted to third place, resulting in a podium sweep by Colombian drivers, something that had never previously happened in motorsports.

It almost goes without saying that no one could have ever predicted Huertas winning this race, and for a plethora of reasons; that’s what makes it arguably the greatest upset in IndyCar history.

Huertas entered this race in 20th place in the championship standings and an average finish of 14.13 through the season’s first eight races, the first eight races of his career, and two top 12 finishes.

His two top 12 finishes through the season’s first eight races were a 10th place finish in the race on the streets of Long Beach, California and an eighth place finish in the first race on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan.

This victory propelled him into a 13th place tie in the championship standings.

But since then, Huertas has never finished a race in the top 13. His top finish throughout the final nine races of the 2014 season was his 14th place finish in the first race of the Honda Indy Toronto doubleheader.

Huertas only competed in three races in the 2015 season, and he recorded a top finish of 16th place in the race at NOLA Motorsports Park in the 2015 season. After qualifying in 18th for the Indianapolis 500, he was diagnosed with an ear infection and was not medically cleared to race.

He has not competed in an IndyCar race since.

Meanwhile, at the time of Huertas’s victory, Dale Coyne Racing had competed in IndyCar since the 2008 season after competing in Champ Car from the 1984 season through the 2007 season. Huertas’s victory was just the team’s fourth victory.

It is hard enough for a driver, a rookie nonetheless, to win an IndyCar race. It is even harder for him to do so driving for one of the sport’s smallest teams in a car that is typically not competitive and finishes toward the back of the pack on a regular basis.

For a rookie driver who has had next to no past IndyCar success to deliver this team their fourth victory in their 31-year existence in just his ninth career start is practically unheard of.

As a rookie, Huertas also became the first rookie to win an IndyCar race since the 2008 season when Justin Wilson won the race on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan. Rookie Graham Rahal also won a race that season, as he won the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

That said, Wilson entered the 2008 season having previously spent four full seasons competing in Champ Car while Rahal entered the 2008 season having previously spent one full season competing in Champ Car. As a result, Huertas became the first true rookie to win an IndyCar race since the 2006 season when Marco Andretti won the race at Sonoma Raceway.

On top of that, Huertas started the race in 19th place. Aside of Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won the 2014 Indianapolis 500 after starting in 19th, no driver had won an IndyCar race after starting from below 17th since Helio Castroneves won the 2008 season finale at Chicagoland Speedway after starting in 28th.

No driver had won an IndyCar road or street course race after starting from below 17th place prior to Huertas’s victory since Max Papis won the race at Laguna Seca in the 2001 CART season after starting in 25th.

We may get to see more upset race victories in IndyCar in the near future. In fact, we just saw one in the penultimate race of the 2018 season when Sato held off Hunter-Reay at Portland International Raceway to claim his third career victory after starting the race all the way back in 20th place.

But nothing will ever quite match what Huertas pulled off on Saturday, June 28, 2014 on the streets of Houston, Texas.

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There are certainly other upsets throughout IndyCar history that can be argued as the greatest upset of all-time. But when put head-to-head with Carlos Huertas’s victory in the in the first race of the 2014 Shell-Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston doubleheader, there is no upset that anyone can say that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is greater.