Six consecutive times – dating back to the start of the 2022 IndyCar campaign – Colton Herta and the No. 26 Andretti Global program started on pole and failed to win. Those half-dozen races have ended a variety of ways, from a DNF at Long Beach to a runner-up finish at Toronto, with combinations of bad luck, strategy miscues and pit lane mistakes in between.

Sunday, the 24-year-old driver ensured there wouldn’t be a 7^th.

After leading nearly all 85 laps during IndyCar’s annual stop on the streets of Toronto, Herta and company executed a pair of almost flawless pitstops, hit on the proper strategy and held off a teammate and a six-time series champ during a late-race caution and an even later red flag to capture his first win in 41 starts.

“We’ve been knocking on the door for a win for so long. 41 starts without a win is a long time. Michael (Andretti) is an owner that demands perfection and results, and we’re people who work for the team that demand it, too, and I’m so happy,” Herta said post-race. “I wish we didn’t have this long of a break. I want to go get right back in for another one.”

Here’s how he did it:

Mid-pack carnage eliminates five cars late

With fewer than 15 laps to go, Pato O’Ward, sitting 6^th and on a solid recovery run up from 14^th on the starting grid, lost the rear of his No. 5 Chevy coming through the Turn 1 right hander and slid into the outside wall. Just a few spots back, Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson couldn’t avoid O’Ward’s car in the braking zone and skidded into the side of O’Ward.

From there, O’Ward’s car would essentially turn into a ramp, as first Pietro Fittipaldi and then Santino Ferrucci ran over the nose of the No. 5 and went airborne – with Ferrucci the second AJ Foyt Racing car in as many race weekends to have all four wheels lift off the ground and overturn in mid-air.

Additionally, the floor of Ferucci’s car made contact with the catch fence before it landed upside down on the Toronto streets. To close the incident, O’Ward’s rookie teammate Nolan Siegel bashed into the No. 5 with the strongest hit of all, with Dale Coyne Racing rookie Toby Sowery sliding into the back of Siegel to make for six cars caught up in the melee.

When asked on the Peacock broadcast what he experienced, O’Ward said it was a relatively simple case of rear tires locking entering the corner leading to the spin and then the six-car pileup.

“I’m surprised IndyCar didn’t call a yellow. You’re just asking for a massive shunt, and they had easily five seconds to call a yellow and tell everyone that was coming,” he said.

Ferrucci noted he had no idea the No. 5 was there waiting and helpless.

“First of all, very thankful for IndyCar and the medical team for me to be able to be so safe after a scary incident like that and walk away fine,” Ferrucci said. “I just never saw Pato, came through and never even saw Pietro clip him. Nothing from the spotters. No yellow or anything, and I didn’t know to check up. Just a bummer.”

The ensuing red flag lasted just under 20 minutes, with only 13 cars left on the lead-lap and 16 running when the cars fired back up and peeled off pitlane, followed shortly by a race restart with nine laps to go.

Six laps prior, rookie Kyffin Simpson slid on his own into the Turn 8 tires to bring out the race’s third caution of the day to kickoff the fireworks. They’d continue before we got the checkered flag.

Power's 'low-percentage move' proves disaster for Team Penske

The 16 cars still running took the green flag with nine laps to go, and before they could turn a single lap, Will Power lunged on his Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin, both of them solidly in the hunt for the championship entering Sunday, to try and snag 4^th-place away for the closing stretch.

From watching the replay, it appeared Power locked up his rear tires after trying to land a late move on the inside of the No. 3 Chevy and knocked wheels, sending McLaughlin into the concrete barriers and ending his day. Behind him, fellow Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden checked up in attempt to miss those slowing in front, leading to David Malukas running into the back of his No. 2 Chevy and puncturing a tire.

Incensed after what he called a “low-percentage move” from Power, McLaughlin quickly pulled his gloves, HANS device, helmet and head sock off and stood at the track opening as the field came back around to greet Power with a sarcastic, overly-emphatic round of applause.

“That’s just a low-percentage move when we’re both probably going to have a really good day,” McLaughlin said post-race. “(Power) came from a long way back, and it’s hard to stop. Do you do that on a teammate? I don’t know.

“I get we’re racing for a championship, but when we’re both ahead of Palou (in the race), it’s a low-percentage move and disappointing for everyone at Team Penske. We weren’t the quickest today, and props to Colton, but I thought we could salvage some really good points today and put ourselves in the championship fight.”

When asked in a follow-up question whether he thought Power deserved the drive-thru penalty levied the two-time champ for ‘avoidable contact’ in the incident, McLaughlin said simply, “Absolutely.”

Entering the race, Power sat 2nd in the championship, 35 points back, with McLaughlin in 5th, 65 back, after his double-podium weekend at Iowa that included a victory. With Power dropping to the back of the lead-lap in 12th by the checkered flag, and McLaughlin ending up 16th, they now sit 2nd and 6th, respectively, with gaps of 49 and 83 points with five races to go.

Herta, Kirkwood turn teamwork into 1-2 finish

As chaos happened behind them, teammates Herta and Kyle Kirkwood didn’t put a wheel wrong all day, with Kirkwood admitting post-race that he was extra cautious on the early- and late-race restarts to give his Andretti Global teammate out front an extra cushion to ensure they both could make it through the packed-up moments unscathed and live to fight it out on-track.

Though he said he felt his No. 27 Honda had better speed on restarts, as well as late in stints, he stayed between a half-second and two seconds back and never truly challenged for the lead.

“More than anything, you want to salvage that 1-2 finish – that’s for sure. Putting us at risk was not the move today, and I played a little more defense, which you probably noticed on restarts,” Kirkwood said. “But I’m super happy with 2^nd-place. This was the goal today. Colton got pole and was deserving of the win and led all race.

“Ultimately, Andretti Global deserves this win today. It was a group effort between the Nos. 26 and 27 crews, working together. We led all the sessions, and now we were able to lead the one that really counts.”

According to NBC, Herta’s ability to pace both practice sessions, qualify on pole, lead the Sunday morning warmup and win the race may have been the first time a driver accomplished all that in a race weekend in modern-day series history.

“We needed this so badly. We’ve been competitive all year, but we just haven’t been able to get that final result, so to come out of Toronto 1-2 is incredible,” Andretti said.

Dixon, Palou, others survive

Despite both starting 15^th or worse, the Chip Ganassi Racing duo Scott Dixon and Alex Palou managed to keep it clean Sunday and slide up the grid as more than half of the paddock suffered some level of adversity – including just 12 cars finishing on the lead-lap and 15 left still running at the finish. With his third consecutive top-4 finish in 3^rd, Dixon jumped back into third place in points as the series enters the closing stretch, 53 points back of his teammate. Finishing one spot back in 4^th, Palou saw his advantage balloon to 49 over Power.

Filling out the rest of the top-10 Sunday was a group of drivers who logged season-best finishes, or nearly so, including Marcus Armstrong (5^th), David Malukas (6^th), Christian Lundgaard (7^th), Rinus VeeKay (8^th), Romain Grosjean (9^th) and Graham Rahal (10^th).

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colton Herta nabs 1st win in 41 starts, Penske, McLaren face chaos