Colton Herta praises a “heroic effort” that got him into the Indy 500

Herta was flying through the air at noon, but his car was back on track before 5pm as Andretti mechanics scrambled to get him into qualifying

Colton Herta made headlines on Saturday, but not for good reasons. The driver of the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda spun out in turn one on his first flying lap, going completely upside down in a frightening crash. Fortunately, he was unharmed, but the race car was not salvageable.

The wreck occurred at 12:05 pm EST. With IndyCar’s rules preventing teams from having backup cars fully prepared and ready to go, the pit crew of the No. 26 car faced an enormous challenge to prepare another car to hit the track before the 5:50 p.m. close of the first day of qualifying.

However, under the leadership of crew chief Nick Allen, they succeeded, and shortly after the final bolt was tightened, Herta achieved a speed of 230.192 mph, placing him 29th and narrowly secured a spot in the 109th Indianapolis 500.

For a driver who shows up to every race looking to win, simply participating in the race — and falling behind — wasn’t the expectation. However, Herta was able to praise his team's fantastic effort despite his own personal frustration.

Colton Herta, Andretti Global

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

“Yeah, it sucks. I think from our standpoint of where we want to be, what we want to contend with, we're not happy just making the show. We want to fight for the pole, we want to be in the Fast 12. When we don't get the chance to do that, it's pretty disappointing."

“(But) what a heroic effort by the guys. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that on any car. Bare chassis, bare tub in four and a half hours to a complete car. The only thing that we transferred over was the engine. Everything else was destroyed."

“To have a car that not only runs but is safe, the balance is right, in that amount of time, I don't even know what to say. It was their day."

When asked about his four-lap qualifying attempt in an unknown car that had just been built, Herta explained, "At some point, I felt the car was good enough to get into the race. Honestly, when you're in that position, it's really just a guess. You have to go all out. You just hope that everyone did their job.”

"This place doesn't scare me"

I have a lot of trust in my team and Nathan (O’Rourke), my engineer, to properly set up the car and ensure my safety in the cockpit. I think that showed a lot."

Despite the uncertainty with the car, Herta had to go back out on the track for another flat-out run just a few hours after a massive hit. But this wasn't a problem at all for the 25-year-old driver.

Colton Herta, Andretti Global

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

“I think for me, this place doesn't scare me. I don't have a problem hitting the wall here and having big ones like today. It doesn't feel good and it sucks, but it doesn't scare me when I get back in the race car.

“When you have that kind of mentality, but you also have a team like we did today, trust in the guys and in Nathan and everybody putting the car together to do the right thing, put the right stuff in the car the right way, it's really not too much of a worry."