MONTEREY, CALIF. ? Bryan Herta returns to familiar surroundings this weekend after racing for the first time in IRL and NASCAR events.

He’ll drive Sunday in the Grand Prix of Monterey, his first CART race since 2001.

“It was a strange set of circumstances,” he said Thursday. “I was substituting for Dario Franchitti with Andretti Green Racing in the IRL, and I was contracted to drive this weekend at Pikes Peak for them.”

But Franchitti, out since April because of a broken bone in his lower back, unexpectedly received clearance to race. That put Herta out of job.

Then the PK Racing team made Herta an offer to drive at Laguna Seca.

He replaces Patrick Lemarie, injured two weeks ago in Milwaukee.

“We’ll see how it goes this weekend,” Herta said. “I’m hoping we’ll have a good strong run. The team hasn’t had a very good season to date.”

Herta arrived at the track Thursday, giving him less than 24 hours to prepare for the first round of qualifying.

“There’s a lot of ways things can go wrong this weekend,” he said. “By Friday afternoon, we’ll have a lot better idea where we’re at.”

Herta started ninth and finished fifth in his IRL debut Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway. He also had a fifth-place finish in his venture into NASCAR, a Winston West outing at California Speedway in April.