INDIANAPOLIS – Marcus Ericsson had to leave Formula One to become a world superstar, a goal he achieved on Sunday when the Swedish driver won the Indianapolis 500 Miles.
Ericsson took control of the race late, in large part due to speeding for teammate Scott Dixon, and controlled it for Chip Ganassi Racing until a collision with his teammate team Jimmie Johnson with four laps to go caused a rare red flag stop at Indianapolis Motor. Speed circuit.
IndyCar is among the purest forms of motor sports and rarely launches artificial precautions or emits stops that can change the outcome. But the crowd of more than 300,000 people, just a few thousand from a sale and the biggest sporting event since the pandemic began, roared when IndyCar called cars on the road.
The stop gave Pato O’Ward and the rest of the rivals almost 12 minutes on the pit road to consider how to catch Ericsson for victory.
The race resumed with two laps to go and Ericsson easily made the jump over O’Ward. The Mexican looked for the last time at the leadership that Ericsson defended, and O’Ward knew how not to force the problem.
“No, I was going to get on the wall if I went looking for it,” O’Ward said.
A fall of Sage Karam back in the traffic caused caution on the last lap, and Ericsson climbed to the victory podium in yellow. Karam was taken to a hospital to assess for muscle pain.
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For Ericsson, it was his third IndyCar victory in 52 starts. All three have been odd victories in which Ericsson sealed the victories after red-flag stoppages, but never assumed he had won the Indy 500 while sitting in his cockpit waiting to run again.
“Nothing can ever be taken for granted, and there were laps left to finish,” Ericsson said. “I was praying so hard there wouldn’t be any yellow, so I knew there would probably be one, and it was hard to focus again.”
But he did, and he endured the biggest victory of his career. Ericsson did not win in five seasons in F1 before packing for the United States and moving to American open wheel racing.
It is the fifth Indy 500 victory for team owner Chip Ganassi, who managed to get on the victory podium next to the Ericsson car. Ericsson is the second Swede to win the Indy 500 in 106 races, joining 1999 winner Kenny Brack.
Ericsson poured his jug of milk all over his face and then handed the bottle to Ganassi so that his head could take his own sip. Ganassi had not won the 500 in 10 years and sent five legitimate candidates to Indy to end the drought.
The victory seemed to belong to Dixon, the six-time IndyCar champion who surpassed 234 mph in qualifying to win the pole. The New Zealander led 95 of the 200 laps on Sunday and his Honda was easily the fastest on the field, so fast that Dixon did not slow down enough in his last pit stop. The penalty kick took him out of the game for the win.
This left Ericsson and Tony Kanaan still in the fight for Ganassi. Kanaan, 47, the oldest driver on the field, thought he was in a perfect position for victory sitting fourth in the rematch.
O’Ward did not yield. He signed a contract extension with Arrow McLaren SP on Friday and desperately wanted the win. But he finished second, falling very short as he tried to hold a banner in his country on the most important day of motorsport; Mexican Sergio Perez opened on Sunday with a victory at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Kanaan was third with a Ganassi car and followed by Felix Rosenqvist, another Swede, who was fourth with McLaren. Rosenqvist has a one-year contract with McLaren and is fighting for his job.
American drivers Alexander Rossi and Conor Daly finished fifth and sixth, Rossi for Andretti Autosport and Daly for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Last year’s winner Helio Castroneves finished seventh and a place ahead of Meyer Shank Racing teammate Simon Pagenaud. The reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou finished 10th in another Ganassi entry.
Dixon finished 21st after the penalty shootout, and although he visited Ericsson on the victory podium, he was comforted by his wife in the pits after the race. Johnson finished 28th in his Indy 500 debut.
“It’s a team, everyone is rooted for everyone else, everyone works together and everyone is an open book,” Ganassi said. “Things will happen in these 500-mile races and you won’t always fall for them. So, you know, we were lucky to have five good cars and five good drivers.”
Honda riders took six of the top nine, including victory.
“I think we’re here for the fans. We listen to the fans,” Kanaan said. “They came here to watch a race. That was the right call. That’s the only reason the race control was called that, I think, it’s because that’s what people wanted to see. If I I was in the stands, I want to see a race.