IndyCar: Colton Herta wins 2019 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey

Colton Herta closed out his rookie IndyCar season by winning the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Harding Steinbrenner Racing rookie Colton Herta closed out his rookie IndyCar season with his second career victory and first since he won at Circuit of the Americas in March, as he took the checkered flag at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to win the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.

Herta started this 90-lap race around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile (3.602-kilometer) WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca natural terrain road course in Monterey, California from the pole position in his #88 Honda, and he won it by 0.5878 seconds over Team Penske’s Will Power in second place in his #12 Chevrolet.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud, two of the four championship contenders, finished in third and fourth place in their #9 Honda and #22 Chevrolet, respectively.

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Rookie of the Year contender and winner Felix Rosenqvist of Chip Ganassi Racing finished in fifth place in his #10 Honda ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, one of the other two championship contenders, in sixth in his #27 Honda.

Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan’s Sebastien Bourdais, who was driving injured, finished in seventh place in his #18 Honda ahead of championship contender and newly crowned two-time champion Josef Newgarden in eighth in his #2 Chevrolet.

Rounding out the top 10 in ninth and 10th place in their #5 Honda and #28 Honda were Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe and Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay, respectively.

This race featured seven lead changes among three drivers. Herta led more laps than anybody else in the field with 83 laps led while Power led six laps and Pagenaud led one. The race’s only caution flag period took place when Andretti Autosport’s Conor Daly spun at the halfway mark on lap 45.

Daly still ended up finishing the race, as the only two drivers who didn’t were Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa’s Ed Jones and Dale Coyne Racing rookie Santino Ferrucci. Jones was forced to retire with a mechanical issue while Ferrucci was forced to retire after making contact with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato on the race’s lone restart.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.

Race Results
1st – Colton Herta
2nd – Will Power
3rd – Scott Dixon
4th – Simon Pagenaud
5th – Felix Rosenqvist
6th – Alexander Rossi
7th – Sebastien Bourdais
8th – Josef Newgarden
9th – James Hinchcliffe
10th – Ryan Hunter-Reay
11th – Marcus Ericsson
12th – Graham Rahal
13th – Max Chilton
14th – Marco Andretti
15th – Charlie Kimball
16th – Tony Kanaan
17th – Matheus Leist
18th – Zach Veach
19th – Jack Harvey
20th – Spencer Pigot
21st – Takuma Sato
22nd – Conor Daly
23rd – Ed Jones
24th – Santino Ferrucci

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The 2020 IndyCar season opener is the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday, March 15.