Double race winner Colton Herta closed out the 2019 NTT IndyCar Season with what he described as the 'perfect race' in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.
Herta was thoroughly in command of the race as he led 83 of the 90 laps, leading Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon who followed closely behind for most of the race.
Despite taking such a dominant victory in his home state, he didn't have it all his own way as Team Penske's Will Power hounded the youngster relentlessly in the final laps, but Herta was able to keep the 2014 series champion behind him.
"I'd never really felt too threatened until the end when Power was on me, and I thought I had it under control for, I guess, 80 percent of the race, 85 percent of the race," said Herta.
"It was a perfect race, whenever you win an IndyCar race, it has to be a perfect race. You can't really make mistakes and get away with it, just because there's always two or three other guys on that day that can win.
After his struggles in Portland with tyre wear, Herta was able to manage the Firestone rubber on the abrasive track surface more successfully.
"It seemed like our tyre wear was a lot better than a lot of people's," added the rookie. "I would say for sure Dixon and Pagenaud, definitely not Power. He seemed to have a little bit of an edge.
"But that last two or three laps I would gap by like a second a lap and have a nice margin coming into the pits if anything were to go wrong or if I had a slow out-lap or in-lap.
"For sure there were a few guys that could win today, and we just outdid them. We had the pace on them, and we were definitely the best today, so we definitely deserved to win."
