Colton Herta'a dad reveals real reason behind their 'sad' professional split at Andretti Global

Former IndyCar driver Colton Herta joined Andretti Global before the 2021 season after previously driving for Harding Steinbrenner Racing, which had an alliance with Andretti. As the youngster made the move, his dad, Bryan Herta, was announced as his race strategist. Colton’s dad recently came out and revealed the reason behind their professional split at Andretti.

Colton Herta came to Andretti Global as a prodigy challenging for the IndyCar title. Who better than former IndyCar driver and his own father, Bryan Herta, to be out in the position of calling the races for his son? However, the father-son duo hadn't done well in the American open wheel racing series in the past, with examples like Bobby-Graham Rahal.

After just over a couple of years into the partnership as the race strategist and driver, Andretti Global made the decision to split the father-son duo. Just one race into the 203 season, Andretti decided to swap the race strategist of Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta.

Bryan Herta went to Kirkwood stable, and Scott Harner joined Colton's side. The swap raised many eyebrows as to why the team made the decision, especially keeping in mind that both duos were doing well, and that Kirkwood had had Harner as his strategist since he raced for AJ Foyt Racing.

Colton Herta's father, Bryan, recently featured on the Racer's Unchained podcast with Paul Tracy. The host questioned Bryan about the professional split and the reason behind it, to which he replied,

“Ultimately, why I moved off of Colton's radio was the Andretti guys thought it was going to be a better move. They thought it would be better to not have that distraction and not have that be part of the story. It wasn't something that Colton and I wanted, but we also understood that it was almost a weekly thing at that point, clips of Colton and I on the radio, and it wasn't where we wanted to focus people's attention either.” (24:50 onwards)

“The team said, 'this would be better' and we said okay and went with it. That's why it ultimately ended. I was a little sad about that, but I was also fine because I never want to be in a position where people are crediting Colton's success to me or vice versa. It's important for him to have his own identity separate from me,” added Herta

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How Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood reacted to the race strategist swap in 2023

Kyle Kirkwood made his IndyCar debut in 2022 with AFR with Scott Harner as his strategist. He moved to Andretti ahead of the 2023 season. However, just one race into the season, the team decided to swap the strategist. Kirkwood came out and reacted to the same as he said,

“I don't know what it is with the family deal, I don’t know if they want to separate that, but they just said this was best for the team and they think it’s going to be really good for me, and they feel Colton is ready for Scott.”

Colton Herta suggested that the swap wasn't required, but accepted the team's decision, as he said,

“I don’t know why they changed it, but do I think a needed change would have changed the result of the race? No, It was a team decision, that’s all I’m going to say.”

However, Scott Harner only stayed as Herta strategist for a few races as Andretti made another change midway through the season, appointing Rob Edwards as the American's strategist ahead of the 2023 race at Mid-Ohio.