Andretti swaps IndyCar strategists for Herta, Kirkwood

It means that Bryan Herta will now call the shots for 2021 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood, and Scott Harner will steer Herta.

The decision comes as a surprise just one race into the season for two reasons. One, the Herta father-son combination had seemed far more harmonious – and more productive – than when Michael Andretti called strategy for son Marco Andretti, or when Bobby Rahal was on the radio for Graham Rahal. And, two, Kirkwood had worked with Harner in the youngster’s rookie season in IndyCar at AJ Foyt Racing.

Speaking to NBC, Colton Herta said it hadn’t been his decision to drop his Dad from the #26 braintrust, and didn’t sound impressed.

However, Harner himself played down the switcharound.

“It was just a team decision,” he told Motorsport.com, “just something they decided to do after St. Pete to mix things up a little bit.

“Colton is calm and cool, doesn’t seem to get excited about much and knows what he wants. Obviously, him and Nathan [O’Rourke], race engineer have been together for a while and have been pretty successful, so that part is pretty seamless.”

Colton and Bryan Herta won four races together over the 2021-’22 period, with Colton finishing fifth in the ’21 championship.

However, both Herta and Kirkwood suffered a difficult season-opener in St. Petersburg, both dropping several places on alternate compound tires towards the end of the first stint, and emerging in unrepresentative positions. Herta then collided Power which took him out of the race, and Kirkwood endured a high-flying ride over two crashed cars, before eventually coming home 15^th.

Herta has qualified 10^th – best of the Andretti Autosport quartet – for tomorrow’s PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway, while Kirkwood will roll off 20^th.