"That's my bread and butter": Colton Herta shares the story behind having a favorite IndyCar track type

IndyCar driver Colton Herta sat down with the newly appointed president of IndyCar series Doug Boles to discuss all things motorsports, and the conversation was uploaded on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway YouTube channel. The Andretti Global driver revealed his favorite style of circuits and detailed the reason behind it.

Herta and Boles discussed the ins and outs of the Indy 500 and oval racing. The IndyCar president then asked Herta if he had any preference regarding the type of circuit that he raced on. The 24-year-old revealed that he prefers road and street courses over the ovals as he grew up racing on those types of circuits and is more familiar with them. He said:

“I love the road and street courses. I mean, I love all of them. Road and street courses are kind of like my bread and butter. That's what I grew up doing. I grew up racing go karts on road courses. And so it's kind of what my background is.”

“You know, a lot of guys, at least in the 90s and early 2000s, grew up racing quarter midgets or dirt stuff. And that's kind of the way to IndyCar. And it's changed now. So for me, that's kind of my bread and butter a little bit more,” he added.

Colton Herta started professional karting at the age of 10 before moving to single-seater racing in 2013. Herta raced in the Pacific Formula F1600 and U.S. F2000 National Championship before moving to Europe for a couple of years.

He participated in the UK-based MSA Formula Championship and multiple junior Formula categories, including the Spanish Formula 3 Championship and BRDC British Formula 3 Championship, before moving back to the US to join the Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) series in 2017.

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Mario Andretti highlighted Colton Herta as a “great candidate” for a Cadillac F1 seat

F1 has confirmed Cadillac's entry into the grid for the 2026 F1 season. The team has less than a year to sort out its operation, produce the car under the new regulations, source the engine for the season, and sign the two drivers.

Amid this, Mario Andretti, who was signed as the Director of the Cadillac board, suggested why Colton Herta is a great shout for the Cadillac F1 seat. He said (via Motorsport):

“Looking back at the way Colton has trained from the very beginning of his young career; as you know he started in Formula 3 and so on with the likes of Lando Norris and he's done some F1 testing.”

“Actually, [McLaren CEO] Zak Brown gave him a good test at Portimao in Portugal. You should see the report that we got from [team principal] Andrea Stella. And Andrea Stella is an individual that says it like it is, so again he's a great candidate for this. All of this has to be proven, of course, but going in I think he’s a good bet in my opinion.”

Colton Herta - INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Source: Getty

Colton Herta currently sits on 32 Super License points and will need to finish P4 or higher in the championship to get the 40 points required for a Super License.