NASHVILLE — Everyone associates this weekend’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix (12 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network) with Josef Newgarden being the hometown hero. Rightfully so too. He was born and raised here. However, Nashville’s newest resident is hopeful to win in front of his new neighbors too.

Colton Herta just recently moved from California to Music City this past offseason.

 “Well, I live in an older neighborhood,” said the 23-year-old. “I think, like, the youngest person that lives there is like 45. That’s the youngest. My next-door neighbor is 70.

“They’re nice people. I don’t know how they found out what I do, but they always come up to me, Hey, good luck this weekend. I haven’t really talked to any of them, so I don’t know how that happens (smiling).”

Herta says that they’ve not yet bothered the new guy to the neighborhood for tickets, but even if they want to now, they’ll have to wait until next year since they won’t be seeing him taking trips to the mailbox this weekend.

That’s because Herta isn’t staying in his house despite this being a home game. He’ll instead trade his bed for his bus.

“I’m staying at the track. I don’t think I’ve ever — I can’t remember the last time I stayed at my house for a race,” he said. “I just thought, like, mentally that would be so weird to me. Maybe even a distraction.

“I never feel too comfortable on race weekends. Your mind is always on how to make the car better, looking at data. I didn’t want to be affected in any way, so I’m staying at the track. It is nicer just being in the bus, be alone, not have to worry about anything. Nobody bugs you.”

He’s hopeful that his trip to his home on Sunday night is a late one. That’s because he’d love nothing more right now than to end his 24-race winning drought by celebrating on Broadway to close the weekend.

Herta said he’s only been to Broadway twice in his life, both for media events, as he doesn’t want to go party during the season. His move took place just prior to the 2023 season beginning, so he’ll wait to go to the Honky Tonk’s until the season’s over.

Or maybe Sunday night.

It would be a redemption for how his first two years have gone here.

In the inaugural race of 2021, Herta was quickest in the opening practice on Friday. He was quickest in the second practice on Saturday. He later won the pole that afternoon.

Then the race didn’t go to plan. A multitude of cautions flipped strategy and kept the fastest, most dominant car out of victory lane.

Herta led a race-high 39 laps and found his way back up to second but by pushing too hard, he found the Turn 9 wall with five laps left. Instead of a win, he was left with a frustrating 19th place result.

Last year, he didn’t have anything in qualifying. He’d qualify 23rd. Remarkably, he’d make it back up to fifth leaving us all wondering what if. What if he started closer to the front.

Now?

“I’m not really too sure. It seems like the fastest way to win this race is crash your car in the first lap, do six pit stops, then pit with six to go and stay out (smiling),” he said.

“I don’t know. It’s a crazy one. Obviously it’s very different to any other race that we go to. But we always plan for the most normal race possible, then obviously strategies change. In this one, they really change.

“It’s hard to know what a good strategy and bad strategy is depending on what’s happening. I’m hoping this new restart zone fixes a lot of the problems we’ve had in the past and it’s a little bit more of a normal race.

“You don’t want a full green flag race because that makes it stale for the racing. We definitely want to do better than eight or nine cautions than it has been the last few years.”

Herta was P6 on Friday, but what some may not see is that his top lap was set on the Firestone primary tires. He never got a clean lap in the end on the alternates due to the late session red flags. To be this quick this soon on the opposite tire is a great sign of a potentially good weekend out of him.

Herta has 4 top 6 starts in the last 6 races including a pair of poles. The only one not was a weekend in Toronto for which he was quickest on Saturday morning practice before rain fell and ruined their chances on a dry setup. He’d still rebound from 14th to finish on the podium in 3rd for his only podium finish of the year.