The Indianapolis 500 doesn’t have a history of two-lap shootouts for the win.
But that didn’t matter to Marcus Ericsson.
Ericsson had to hold off a big last lap charge from Pato O’Ward in turn one on the final lap of Sunday’s 106th running of the “Greatest Spectacle In Racing” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After holding the lead through turn two, Ericsson snaked his No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda back and forth down the backstretch to break the draft of those behind him.
When the final caution flew moments later for a crash in turn two by Sage Karam, the race was over and Ericsson came home as an Indy 500 winner.
“Yeah, it’s still tough to sort of take in,” said Ericsson. “Obviously it’s the biggest race in the world, something we all work so much towards, we all dream of winning this race.
“Obviously there were some stuff happening along the way, but I knew I had a shot.”
It marks the first win for the Kumla, Sweden native at the famed “Brickyard” and his third career NTT IndyCar Series win. Ericsson becomes just the second Swedish driver to win the 500-mile event, joining 1999 winner Kenny Brack.
“You finally put your talents to good use today,” Brack told Ericsson via Zoom during the post-race press conference. “Congratulations. It was a good drive, Marcus. I was really pleased for you. I know you worked a long time for this. Was a great race, great drive today. Very well deserved.”
“Thank you, Kenny. I appreciate that,” Ericsson replied. “It means a lot hearing that. Kenny was the one that helped me from go-karts to single-seaters. He’s done very, very much for my career. He’s one of the persons that I wouldn’t be here without him and his help throughout my career. So I’m very thankful for those words, Kenny.”
It also marks the fifth Indianapolis 500 win for Chip Ganassi Racing, and the first in 10 years for the team.
“Yeah, we’ve had a really good month,” said Ericsson. “We’ve been really strong as a team, the whole Chip Ganassi Racing organization has been really good. I knew we had a chance to win today.”
“I’m sure everybody remembers in 1982 when I got here, someone asked me if I ever wanted to be a car owner. I said, I couldn’t imagine why anybody would want to own one of those things,” team owner Chip Ganassi said while smiling. “I had a change of heart about that. Couldn’t be happier. I seem to be a little better at this than I was driving.”
Ericsson made the pass for the win with 18 laps to go – but it wasn’t for the lead.
Ericsson bypassed Felix Rosenqvist for position in the middle of the final round of green flag pit stops while a group of drivers ahead were stretching their fuel.
When the final of those drivers – seven time NASCAR Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson – came to pit road with 12 laps to go, Ericsson swept into the lead, and began moving away from O’Ward and third place Tony Kanaan.
It looked like Ericsson had the race wrapped up. But with six laps to go Johnson, his teammate, spun and crashed hard in turn two. Johnson was uninjured, but it looked like it might cost his teammate the win as race officials red flagged the event with five laps to go to allow for cleanup.
When the race resumed with two laps to go, Ericsson drove defensively to thwart any attempts to pass from O’Ward.
But O’Ward got a run on the final lap going into turn one, pulling alongside Ericsson on the outside.
But Ericsson held the measure of the challenge, moving back to the point as the two raced off turn two.
Ericsson again began weaving down the backstretch to keep O’Ward from getting a change to draft up in turn three, but the win was his when Karam’s crash brought out the final caution of the day.
“To be honest, when that caution came out, I don’t know, I thought it was going to be another restart,” Ericsson said. “I was like, I can’t believe it, another one. Then they’re like, we’re coming to the checkered flag under caution.
“First I was angry, then I just realized that won me the race. Yeah, it’s explosion of emotions from that point.”
For O’Ward, he didn’t think the last lap pass could be made.
“Too fast in the straight,” O’Ward said. “Maybe if I would have timed it a little bit better. I really don’t think I could have done it much better. I did enough to what we had been doing all race. But, yeah, at the end I was surprised with how much more pace they had in a straight line with quite a bit more downforce. I was just trying to time it as good as possible.
“Obviously the weaving helped him. Staying on the inside helped him. I got alongside him, but we all know how that ends up in the last lap. No way he would have backed off.”
Behind the lead duo, Kanaan brought his CGR Honda home in third.
“It was a cat and mouse day,” Kanaan said. “We kept pretending we were not fast enough all day. When it was time to go, we actually went.
“I don’t know. I said that two days ago that I think that race, it was going to be played between my teammates. I don’t know. If you’re going to go and say, If (Scott) Dixon didn’t have the hiccup in the pits, this and that, I’m not going to sit here and say I was going to win the race. I had a car to do it for sure.”
Felix Rosenqvist followed in fourth, with Alexander Rossi in fifth.
Conor Daly, Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud, Alex Palou, and Santino Ferrucci rounded out the top 10.
While Ericsson drank the milk in victory lane, another CGR teammate was left wondering what might have been.
Pole sitter Scott Dixon all but dominated the event, leading a race high 95 of 200 laps – enough for him to bypass three-time race winner Wilbur Shaw and two-time winner Al Unser, Jr. as the all-time lap leader in the event.
He was the leader when he came to pit road for his final green flag pit stop with 25 laps left to go. While the work in the pits went smoothly, the same couldn’t be said for Dixon’s entry, as he was penalized for speeding on pit road. He saw his chance for a second Indy 500 win went away as he had to make a pass through down pit road as the field screamed past at speed.
In the end, Dixon finished in 21st.
Another pre-race favorite and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Alex Palou, also had bad luck.
Palou spent most of the opening 70 laps of the race swapping the lead with Dixon. A round of green flag stops had just started, with Palou coming to pit road just as a caution flew for a crash in turn two.
Palou, who was low on fuel, was not allowed by the rules to make his stop, as the pit road was closed before he made it to the commitment line.
Palou had to make a stop before pit road opened for fuel on lap 71, then come back again a lap later for tires. He then had to start at the back of the pack for pitting before the pits were opened.
Palou would never play a factor in the race again, as he eventually finished in ninth.
Jimmie Johnson had an up and down day, even leading a lap in his Indianapolis 500 debut late in the going. After his race ending crash with six laps to go, Johnson was credited with a 28th place finish.
In all, the race was slowed six times by cautions, mostly for single car incidents in turn two of the 2.5-mile speedway.
The first occurred when Rinus Veekay crashed while running second, as his car spun in the second turn and made contact with the outside wall. The second came out on lap 69 when the car of rookie Callum Ilott spun into the outside wall in turn two, then slid down and made contact with the inside wall.
It was a similar situation on lap 106 for former Formula 1 ace Romain Grosjean, who was making his first 500 start. Just as with Illott, his car spun into the outside wall in turn two, then made had contact with the inside wall.
The fourth caution flew for an incident on the other end of the track, when the car of Scott McLaughlin wiggled, then went into the wall in turn 3. The car travelled down through the inside deceleration lane, then went back up and slammed again into the outside wall.
The final two cautions flew with six laps to go for Johnson’s crash and on the final lap for Karam’s crash. Fortunately there were no injuries reported in any of the incidents.
NTT IndyCar Series
Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Indianapolis, IN
Indianapolis 500 – May 29, 2022
1. (5) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 200, Running
2. (7) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 200, Running
3. (6) Tony Kanaan, Honda, 200, Running
4. (8) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 200, Running
5. (20) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 200, Running
6. (18) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 200, Running
7. (27) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 200, Running
8. (16) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 200, Running
9. (2) Alex Palou, Honda, 200, Running
10. (15) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 200, Running
11. (30) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 200, Running
12. (17) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 200, Running
13. (14) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 200, Running
14. (21) Graham Rahal, Honda, 200, Running
15. (11) Will Power, Chevrolet, 200, Running
16. (13) David Malukas, Honda, 200, Running
17. (28) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 200, Running
18. (31) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 200, Running
19. (4) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 200, Running
20. (24) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 200, Running
21. (1) Scott Dixon, Honda, 200, Running
22. (23) Marco Andretti, Honda, 200, Running
23. (22) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 199, Running
24. (32) Jack Harvey, Honda, 199, Running
25. (10) Takuma Sato, Honda, 199, Running
26. (33) Stefan Wilson, Chevrolet, 198, Running
27. (29) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 198, Running
28. (12) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 193, Contact
29. (26) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 150, Contact
30. (25) Colton Herta, Honda, 129, Mechanical
31. (9) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 105, Contact
32. (19) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 68, Contact
33. (3) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 38, Contact
Winner’s average speed: 175.428 mph
Time of Race: 02:51:00.6432 Margin of victory: Under caution
Cautions: 6 for 31 laps
Lead changes: 38 among 9 drivers
Lap Leaders: Palou, Alex 1-7; Dixon, Scott 8-9; Palou, Alex 10-12; Dixon, Scott 13-16; Palou, Alex 17-21; Dixon, Scott 22-29; Palou, Alex 30; VeeKay, Rinus 31; Ericsson, Marcus 32; O’Ward, Pato 33-35; Palou, Alex 36-47; Dixon, Scott 48-50; Palou, Alex 51; Dixon, Scott 52-53; Palou, Alex 54-57; Dixon, Scott 58-59; Palou, Alex 60-68; O’Ward, Pato 69-72; Dixon, Scott 73-79; Daly, Conor 80-81; Dixon, Scott 82-83; Daly, Conor 84-85; Dixon, Scott 86-108; Daly, Conor 109-111; Dixon, Scott 112-140; O’Ward, Pato 141-143; Kanaan, Tony 144; Ericsson, Marcus 145; Palou, Alex 146-147; O’Ward, Pato 148-157; Dixon, Scott 158-160; O’Ward, Pato 161-164; Dixon, Scott 165-174; O’Ward, Pato 175-176; Kanaan, Tony 177-181; Palou, Alex 182-184; Andretti, Marco 185-187; Johnson, Jimmie 188-189; Ericsson, Marcus 190-200
Point Standings: Ericsson 226, O’Ward 213, Palou 212, Power 202, Newgarden 174, Dixon 166, McLaughlin 162, Pagenaud 157, Rosenqvist 154, Herta 142, Rossi 141, Daly 137, VeeKay 134, Rahal 130, Grosjean 128, Castroneves 123, Lundgaard 103, Sato 100, Malukas 90, Kanaan 78, Kirkwood 77, Harvey 73, Johnson 71, Ilott 71, Ferrucci 62, DeFrancesco 62, Hildebrand 53, Carpenter 49, Kellett 45, Montoya 44, Tatiana Calderon 41, Andretti 17, Karam 14, Wilson 10.
