Andretti Global shares comical Christmas showdown with Marcus Ericsson, Colton Herta, and Kyle Kirkwood

Andretti Global began the Christmas celebrations early with their three drivers: Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, and Marcus Ericsson. The trio faced off in a silly yet intense competition back at the team's factory.

Andretti's IndyCar page posted a short video on Instagram where the trio, who had reindeer antlers on, engaged in a marshmallow collecting competition. Ericsson, who won the 2022 Indy 500 with Chip Ganassi Racing, kicked off the video with an amusing Christmas parallel to explain the game. He said:

"All right, we're hungry reindeers. Most marshmallows on your plate win. And it's me against reindeer 1 (pointing to Kyle Kirkwood on his right) and reindeer (pointing to Colton Herta on his left)."

But the game wasn't as easy. The drivers couldn't directly use their hands and had to wear plastic cups over them. The execution was as hilarious as the concept. The seriousness didn't last for more than a few seconds as Kirkwood resorted to picking up Ericsson's entire marshmallow-filled plate and putting it on his plate.

"So who won?" was the cameraperson's question after the table was cleared of the marshmallows. Ericsson chose a racing analogy to explain his DNF.

"I was on a good run until the last sector and then I was crashed out," he said, referring to Kirkwood stealing his plate.

The post caption referenced the movie 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. In this scenario, Kirkwood was the Grinch. The caption read:

"A short story: How Kyle Kirkwood stole Christmas😱"

If you discounted Ericsson's marshmallow tally from Kirkwood's final tally, it appeared as if Colton Herta had won. After the kind of season Herta's had, him sweeping a Christmas game too wouldn't come as a surprise.

---

Colton Herta wants to "duct tape Alex Palou in a porta-potty" to win the 2025 IndyCar championship

Alex Palou with Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood at the 2023 Grand Prix of Long Beach (Source: Getty)

Colton Herta secured his best career IndyCar standings finish in 2024. He finished runner-up to Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou, who took his third championship home this year.

The points gap between them was only 31. Both drivers had the same number of wins (2), poles (3), and Top 10 finishes (13). However, Palou secured three more Top 5 finishes than Herta (13 vs 10), which gave him the lead.

When Herta appeared for an interview at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in the first week of December for their 'An Evening With' speaker series, host Dave Furst asked the No. 26 driver about his 2025 expectations.

"Hopefully more of the same, just a little bit better," Herta replied.

When the host stated that Herta finished second in the points in 2024, the Andretti driver hilariously replied:

"Yeah, I got to duct tape Alex (Palou) in a porta-potty or something like that. But no, we just have to clean a few things up, you know."

He then listed a few examples from the season where, if not for unfortunate mistakes, he could've been closer to his maiden championship.

"If we don't miss the yellow at Iowa, that's 25 points. If I don't crash at Indy (500), that's another 30 points. The Detroit crash, we lost the left front wheel at Milwaukee, there's these things that are gonna happen. You're gonna have mistakes. You're gonna have mishaps. But we just need to clean it up a little bit."

2025 could be a make-or-break year for Colton Herta. Based on his IndyCar standings finish, he could become eligible for the 2026 Cadillac F1 seat that team director Mario Andretti is reportedly eyeing him for.