(Lead photo: Motorsport.com) At the age of 18 years, 11 months and 25 days, Colton Herta has become IndyCar’s youngest winner after he took the checkered flag in a well-contested race at Circuit of the Americas. He had held well throughout the race but hadn’t expected a full-course caution to hit with fifteen laps left in the race after James Hinchcliffe and Felix Rosenqvist had a tangle-up. As Will Power, Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon dove into pit lane, Herta stayed out and that made all of the difference. With Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay following behind, Herta ran the Harding Steinbrenner Racing-Honda car to the checkered flag. Not bad for his third-ever race in IndyCar!

What worked out for him? In a Motorsport.com article, he believed that his ability to drive a loose vehicle on a low-grip track like COTA benefitted him. “You got to be able to drive a loose car. Obviously the grip level of the track didn’t change much for some reason. I think the asphalt doesn’t take rubber. Kind of just put it down on the track and shuffled it off. The lap times actually didn’t really change that much throughout the weekend. Yeah, I guess being able to drive a loose car is key, being able to hold onto it.”

The next IndyCar race will be at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama on April 7th, 2019.