"It was super special to be able to win that one": Colton Herta reflects on 2021 Long Beach victory

Andretti Global driver Colton Herta recently reflected on his win at Long Beach in 2021. It was a memorable race for him as it marked Herta's second race win in the series.

As the ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach marks its 50th anniversary, IndyCar asked their past winners about their most memorable moment. Herta mentioned his 2021 win at the street track.

"That's the race I grew up going to. I was two weeks old for my first Long Beach Grand Prix. And so, it's my first INDYCAR race, and it's the one that I grew up going to the most just because Southern California native. It was super special to be able to win that one, especially from mid-pack. That was really, really cool and really hard." he said (via indycar.com).

Herta had qualified in 14th place for the race and seemed out of contention for the win. But with good strategy and pace on his side, he managed to catch up to the race leaders Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden, eventually passing them on lap 38.

However, as it came down to the final few laps of the race, Newgarden started catching up to Herta, slicing down the time from 8.8 seconds to 0.588 seconds. Herta managed to hold off Newgarden and win his second race of the season.

Colton Herta will try to emulate his 2021 win this year at the ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 13.

Mario Andretti gave his opinion on Colton Herta joining the Cadillac F1 team

The racing legend Mario Andretti recently spoke about the #26 driver for Andretti Global, Colton Herta, joining Formula One with Cadillac F1. Herta has been linked to the Cadillac team since they announced their plans to join F1.

The American driver raced in the junior formula categories in Europe along with drivers like Lando Norris. Herta was signed as a reserve driver to McLaren Formula One team in 2022 and he tested with the team in Partimão.

While talking on ESPN's podcast back in March, Mario Andretti spoke about Colton Herta's chances of joining the Cadillac F1 team. He said:

“You got to look back at where & how he (Colton Herta) trained, you know and how good he was immediately when he came back to the States. And sometimes you cannot judge a driver on a specific season because of the functions of the team and so forth.” (19:15 onwards)

“But you know basically he trained just like alongside Lando Norris for instance when he was going through Formula 3, Formula 2 in the early stages of his career as a teenager he was living in Europe and then the first really top level racing was when he came to America,” he added.

Herta has been backed by many IndyCar pundits like Marshall Pruett for the Cadillac seat. With the project being backed by Andretti Global, he seems to be the likely choice.