Bryan Herta no longer has reason to feel left out.
The Andretti Green Racing driver became the fourth and final member of his team to win a IndyCar series race this season, capturing Sunday’s Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.
Herta held off three drivers in a scramble to the finish, beating teammate Dan Wheldon by less than a car length on the wide, 2-mile oval for his first victory since 2003.
“It was frustrating, in a way,” Herta said of the victory drought. “As much as I wanted to win, though, those guys kept me really up. They said, ‘Bryan, you’ll get one soon, and it’ll be a big party when you do.”‘
Herta finished with an average speed of 167.197 mph, with Wheldon, the series points leader, second. Tomas Scheckter was third, followed by Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr.
Wheldon leads Andretti Green drivers with four wins in the season’s first 11 races. Teammates Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, and now Herta, have one.
Herta had won poles at Phoenix and St. Petersburg (Fla.) before notching his third pole at Michigan. But his best finish of the year had been third at the Indianapolis 500.
He was dominant for most of the Sunday’s race, leading 159 of its 200 laps.
Rookie Danica Patrick, who had performed well on large ovals all season, finished 20th after blowing an engine on the 164th lap, quickly pulling off the track.
“I just didn’t want the thing igniting with me sitting in it,” Patrick said.
Patrick started from the eighth position, but immediately fell back in the pack because of handling problems. She reported to her pit crew that the track felt slippery, and she had dropped to 20th in the 23-car field about 25 laps in.
Patrick’s Rahal Letterman crew made tire pressure and other adjustments on her first pit stop, but she was a lap behind the leader on the 65th lap.
“I was struggling with the car all weekend,” Patrick said. “It just wasn’t consistent.”
Wheldon increased his season series lead. He has 417 points, 78 ahead of Hornish with six races left.
“It was Herta’s day,” Wheldon said. “It’s very good to see him in Victory Lane.”
Formula One: Kimi Raikkonen blew away the field at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, winning by 35.5 seconds for his fourth victory of the season.
Pole-sitter Michael Schumacher finished a distant second, with his brother, Ralf Schumacher, taking third.
“It was really the pit stops that decided it,” Michael Schumacher said.
The turning point came after the second pit stop. Separated by less than a second, Schumacher pitted on lap 36 and Raikkonen a lap later.
Raikkonen opted to add only a little fuel, and the strategy worked. He came out of the pits just ahead of Schumacher and immediately started padding the lead by nearly two seconds a lap.
Raikkonen’s sixth career victory gave him 61 points this season, second to Formula One points leader Fernando Alonso.
Alonso finished out of the points, but holds a commanding lead with 87 points.
