Marcus Ericsson has secured the biggest win of his career, taking victory in the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 while driving for the dominant Chip Ganassi Racing.
Holding off a charging Pato O’Ward in a final two-lap dash, Ericsson was able to secure his third IndyCar victory since switching to the discipline in 2019.
A late caution was converted to a red flag by IndyCar officials in order to give the race a chance to finish under green.
Ericsson was leading at the time on account of solid driving all day, but there were fears his car would overheat sitting on pit lane while debris from Jimmie Johnson’s crash was cleared.
The car started without issue, however, and the Swede was able to hold off O’Ward through extreme weaving measures that almost put both into the retaining wall separating the pits from the track.
Ericsson took a swig of cold whole milk once his car was wheeled to victory lane, then customarily doused himself with the rest of the bottle.
The race was littered with disappointment for others in the field, with no less than six drivers involved in one-car crashes that took them out of the race.
Rinus VeeKay started the trend, with a solo crash coming out of turn 2 on lap 39. The Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy was destroyed in the impact, and the likeable Dutchman was the first to retire from the race.
Rookie Callum Ilott was next to spin out of turn 2, followed by Indy 500 rookie Romain Grosjean, who crashed in the exact same manner.
All three drivers reported that they had no warning before their cars snapped loose, with a gusty tailwind coming out of the tricky corner the leading theory as to the cause of the crashes.
Scott McLaughlin, Sage Karam, and Jimmie Johnson were the other solo wrecks of the day, with the latter bringing out a red flag with just four laps remaining.
Scott Dixon led the most laps on the day, and even surpassed the all-time Indy 500 laps led mark, but a late-race mistake cost him dearly.
When he was slowing to make his final pit stop of the day, Dixon locked up his tires and slid through the entry to pit lane. He kept control, but was slapped with a speeding penalty for the infraction.
After serving one of the longest drive-thoughs of his life, Dixon emerged to finish in the 21st position. The great veteran remains at just one Indy 500 victory to his name.
Drivers don’t have much time to relax, as the next race from the streets of Detroit comes in just one week’s time. The tough course is the site of Ericsson’s first IndyCar win last year, and he has all the momentum on his side.
| # | Driver | Time / Gap | Laps Led | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcus Ericsson | 02:51:00.6432 | 13 | 109 |
| 2 | Pato O’Ward | -1.7929 | 26 | 87 |
| 3 | Tony Kanaan | -3.5173 | 6 | 78 |
| 4 | Felix Rosenqvist | -4.1267 | – | 69 |
| 5 | Alexander Rossi | -4.9804 | – | 60 |
| 6 | Conor Daly | -5.0799 | 7 | 57 |
| 7 | Helio Castroneves | -6.5614 | – | 52 |
| 8 | Simon Pagenaud | -7.0937 | – | 48 |
| 9 | Alex Palou | -8.2446 | 47 | 56 |
| 10 | Santino Ferrucci | -9.8329 | – | 40 |
| 11 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -10.7647 | – | 38 |
| 12 | JR Hildebrand | -11.6554 | – | 36 |
| 13 | Josef Newgarden | -11.8276 | – | 34 |
| 14 | Graham Rahal | -12.4253 | – | 32 |
| 15 | Will Power | -13.3036 | – | 32 |
| 16 | David Malukas | -13.6283 | – | 28 |
| 17 | Kyle Kirkwood | -14.5864 | – | 26 |
| 18 | Ed Carpenter | -15.5602 | – | 24 |
| 19 | Devlin DeFrancesco | -15.8218 | – | 31 |
| 20 | Christian Lundgaard | -16.3308 | – | 20 |
| 21 | Scott Dixon | -18.1238 | 95 | 33 |
| 22 | Marco Andretti | -25.2002 | 3 | 17 |
| 23 | Sage Karam | -1 lap | – | 14 |
| 24 | Jack Harvey | -1 lap | – | 12 |
| 25 | Takuma Sato | -1 lap | – | 13 |
| 26 | Dalton Kellett | -2 laps | – | 10 |
| 27 | Stefan Wilson | -2 laps | – | 10 |
| 28 | Jimmie Johnson | -7 laps | 2 | 12 |
| 29 | Scott McLaughlin | -50 laps | – | 10 |
| 30 | Colton Herta | -71 laps | – | 10 |
| 31 | Romain Grosjean | -95 laps | – | 14 |
| 32 | Callum Ilott | -132 laps | – | 10 |
| 33 | Rinus VeeKay | -162 laps | 1 | 21 |
