Beyond the Flag
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IndyCar: Way-too-early top 10 drivers for 2020

By Asher Fair

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JUNE 08: Takuma Sato of Japan, driver of the #30 ABeam Consulting Honda, races Scott Dixon of New Zealand, driver of the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, at the start of the NTT IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 08, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JUNE 08: Takuma Sato of Japan, driver of the #30 ABeam Consulting Honda, races Scott Dixon of New Zealand, driver of the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, at the start of the NTT IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 08, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /
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MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 19: Colton Herta #88 of United States and Capstone Turbine Honda (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 19: Colton Herta #88 of United States and Capstone Turbine Honda (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

No. 3 – Colton Herta

Colton Herta, who drove the #88 Harding Steinbrenner Racing Honda in his rookie season this past year, is set to become Andretti Autosport’s fifth driver behind the wheel of the #88 Honda next year, as Andretti Autosport and Harding Steinbrenner Racing merged to form Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport to field this entry for him.

Herta was one of the most inconsistent drivers in the field in his rookie season. At one point, he was on a four-race stint during which his average finish was worse than any other driver’s average finish during a four-race stint since the 2011 season.

He ended up going on a seven-race stint during which his average finish was 20.71 even though an average of only 24.29 drivers competed in these seven races.

Yet despite his struggles and the mechanical issues he faced throughout the season, which resulted in his 33rd place finish in the double points-paying Indianapolis 500, he still managed to finish in seventh place in the championship standings.

Improve any one of his poor results, and he finishes in sixth place as Rookie of the Year over Felix Rosenqvist.

It is also worth noting that the two tracks where he won, Circuit of the Americas and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, were added to the schedule ahead of the 2019 season.

In other words, Herta and the rest of the field were on pretty even ground only at these two tracks.

Now he is set to enter the 2020 season having only not competed at Richmond Raceway, and most of the other drivers haven’t either since that track has not been on the schedule since the 2009 season. Just imagine what he can do the second time around, and in a full Andretti Autosport car, no less.

The last time I had a young Andretti Autosport driver making a huge jump up the championship standings from seventh place, he went on to finish in second. That driver, now a perennial championship contender, won two races in his first two seasons. in his mid-20s.

Herta won two races as a teenage rookie.