Marcus Ericsson is an Indy 500 champion. (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment)
In the year 2022, the Month of May will forever be remembered as the month Chip Ganassi Racing ruled the 106th Indianapolis 500. The man who ruled Indy came from the least likely competitor but certainly showed his strength when it mattered most. That man being Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson.
On a Sunday that was Scott Dixon and Alex Palou’s 500 to lose, Ericsson capitalized on both of their misfortunes on pit road to put himself in a prime position to win. Not even a late-race red flag or a hungry pack of veterans distracted Ericsson’s determination and it was him who’ll have his face etched on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
No longer he’ll be remembered as a perennial back marker at Sauber nor a Formula 1 meme. He’ll forever be immortalized as a winner of the Indianapolis 500, becoming the first Swede to do so since Kenny Brack in 1999.
A monumental moment Ericsson has worked for in his racing career led to the victory. More sweeter that his girlfriend, family and backers were at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to see this glorious triumph.
“It’s gonna take a while to take it in. It’s incredible,” said Ericsson, who led 13 of 200 laps. “I’ve worked so hard for a moment like this and win the biggest race in the world is incredible.”
Ericsson’s win didn’t come that easy as he had to overcome a woeful pit stop that dropped him to eighth at one point in the 500. From there on, things had to fall in his favor to put himself in a position to raise hell on the competition.
“We had a really good race car. Had some bad luck in the middle of the race with a pit stop. I was trying to be out front and wait for them because I knew we had a car to win. We dropped back with the mishap in the pits. But still knew we had a chance and worked my way there,” Ericsson explained his afternoon.
“The strategy guys and girls did a great job on the last pit stop and pushed like crazy to get a good sequence. I managed to over take both McLarens and the Honda power was pulling me away.
“I thought I had it but this place never let’s you get it easy. I was praying for the yellow to never come because I knew it was a big risk at the end. I couldn’t believe it when the yellow came and had to do it all over again. That’s why we do it. It’s not supposed to be easy, but we made it.”
It marked the first win for the No. 8 since Pat Flaherty in 1956 and Ganassi’s first Indy 500 win since Dario Franchitti 10 years ago.
Pato O’Ward finished in second and rounding out the top-three was Tony Kanaan. The latter gave it his all and waved to the fans after taking the twin checkered flag as his Indy 500 career remains up in the air.
“I thought I had it,” said Kanaan. “I know how good I can restart here and can hear the crowd. When they were asking (under the red flag) who they wanted to win, and I wanted it so bad. I tried and gave it all today.”
The grandest picture was the team he drove for got the victory, accomplishing their main goal of being a winning team at Indy with Ericsson taking top honors and Kanaan rounding out the top-three.
“Chip told us we are here to win as a team and we did it,” Kannan commented. “I’m really proud of this team. It’s a big deal and I don’t think (Marcus) will realize that yet but he will.”
Dixon led the field of 33 strong to the green, but his time in first didn’t last as his teammate Palou took command and led early on. Then on Lap 9, Dixon would regain the top spot and led his first laps of the afternoon.
From there, the battle between the Ganassi duo traded the top spot multiple times until Dixon found his rhythm in first before the first set of pit stops on Lap 31.
Despite a relatively slow stop for Palou, he cycled out in front of Dixon. But one man was trying to stop the dominance — Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, who split up the duo.
That threat ended on Lap 39 after his car snapped and slammed the wall in Turn 2, bringing out the first caution and his shot at Indy glory was over.
VeeKay was OK and felt that his car felt better adjusted after pit stops. But finishing last demoralized his spirits as he’d hope to score a 500 win and rack up points in the championship.
“The car got loose in Turn 2 and was a passenger from there on,” said VeeKay. “I think we had a car that was good enough to fight for the win or at least get a lot of points. I got none of that. Big sorry to the team and everybody cheering me on because it could’ve been a nice day.”
Once the race resumed on Lap 47, Ganassi now held the top-three spots with Ericsson jumping into the mix. However, Arrow McLaren SP’s O’Ward ended that brief podium parade after passing Ericsson for third.
Like the first green flag run, it was “The Dixon and Palou Show” as neither had the race in the palm of their hands yet. Palou would ultimately control the race after 150 miles.
The second set of pit stops was halted after a brutal crash by rookie Callum Ilott but got out of his car unharmed.
“It could be better but all good otherwise,” said Ilott, who had a brace on his right wrist. “A bit of a shame really. It was running well and lost it in the middle of the corner.”
While Dixon entered to pit before the crash, Palou was snake bitten as pit road was closed. With fuel being tight, Palou had an emergency service stop and forced to start at the rear of the field in 30th.
A slow pit stop on Lap 147 eliminated any other shot Palou had on recovering from the penalty. From losing out on a 500 win with two to go last year, this time it was an ill-timed pit service that denied the reigning INDYCAR champion a win.
Palou bounced back to finish ninth for a good points day, but an unideal result.
Illott’s crash ultimately led to Dixon being back in first once O’Ward pitted from the lead. Indiana’s own Conor Daly was now in second, picking up the pieces for ECR. Daly fought hard to hunt down Dixon on Lap 81 and took the lead with the Hoosier crowd roaring for the second straight year.
It wouldn’t last as Dixon crashed the party a lap later and regained the lead. The never-quit spirit of Daly would make it difficult for Dixon to control the 500 as regained P1 laps later. Like the first time he took the lead, it was shorted lived thanks to Dixon.
Romain Grosjean would bring out the third caution on Lap 107 when his rear end snapped and hit the Turn 2 wall. The former F1 driver’s bid for Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors was over.
A disappointed Grosjean said he had no warning as to what led to his exit, but was okay after being checked and released from the care center.
“The rear snapped on me without any warning,” said Grosjean. “It was a corner where the car was pretty good, so I don’t know why what happened and I wasn’t trying anything different. I’m gonna try to analyze to understand and move on.”
The No. 20 ECR crew gave Daly the lead over Dixon during pit stops and led the field back to green on Lap 113. They battled side-by-side with O’Ward and Santino Ferrucci frantically wanting a piece of the action. Dixon won the battle with O’Ward also getting by Daly in less than a lap.
With Dixon continuing leading laps at Indy, he already surpassed Ralph DePalma for second in career laps led in the Indy 500.
Then on Lap 134, history was re-written with Dixon becoming the all-time laps leader, surpassing four-time 500 champion Al Unser’s mark of 644. A record Unser held since 1987, the year he won his final 500.
Dixon lost the lead to O’Ward following the latter pulling off the overcut during pit stops. When the dust settled, O’Ward nearly had a second advantage coming to 50 laps to go.
Then a crash by Scott McLaughlin in Turns 3-4 changed everything, putting O’Ward in the catbird seat. It was his turn to set the tone on a restart with Dixon and teammate Felix Rosenqvist determined to snatch the lead.
To his advantage, O’Ward was good to go in terms of fuel for the final 100 miles. On the other hand, Takuma Sato and Jack Harvey pitted for fuel before the race resumed. Dixon made quick business of O’Ward on Lap 159.
The latter wouldn’t let it slide as he got a run on Dixon on Lap 161 and took the lead back. No longer dominating on defense, Dixon tried but couldn’t get attack O’Ward quite yet.
“The Iceman” got by “The Ninja” on Lap 165 for the top spot as they became the ones who’ll duke it out for the Borg-Warner Trophy. It all boiled down to the final pit stop with Dixon pitting with 25 to go and had a sub-seven-second pit stop.
That wouldn’t matter as he had an extremely costly drive-through penalty, eliminating Dixon from the fight. He crossed the line in 21st after leading a race-high 95 of 200 laps.
Dixon’s historic day wasn’t meant to be in terms of winning the 500. (Photo: James Black | Penske Entertainment)
All O’Ward had to do is have a clean stop on Lap 178 and another major win for Mexico was in the cards. However, his teammate Rosenqvist was now the man to beat thanks to having clean air prior to pitting.
Suddenly, the contest turned into a Swede duel after Ericsson got by O’Ward. Then Ericsson had caught Rosenqvist, putting Arrow McLaren on blast as Ganassi may not be out of the fight.
Ericsson got the job done on Lap 184 and was now leading the fray and a sizeable lead to boot. He’d take top spot on Lap 190 after Marco Andretti (pitted on Lap 189) and Jimmie Johnson tried stretching their fuel window.
A caution was the absolute last thing Ericsson wanted to see as the race came down to the final 10 laps, knowing what’s on the line for he and the entire No. 8 Ganassi crew. O’Ward was now trailing the leader by over three seconds as the Indy dream was dwindling and faced pressure from 2013 winner Tony Kanaan.
With six laps to go, the dreaded caution Ericsson didn’t want happened. Johnson crashed hard on the backstretch and brought out an ill-timed caution.
Ericsson’s lead was gone and for the first time since 2019, the race was brought to a halt on Lap 197. It marked the 20th stoppage in Indy 500 history since at least 1964 and the latest stoppage in history.
Johnson explained his car turned around fast but might’ve felt that a wind gust caught the balance of his No. 48 Honda. Something he didn’t have an issue with up to that point and hopes to be back at Indy next year.
“I was completely surprised and caught out when the car rotated around on corner entry to (Turn) 2. Certainly, not the way I wanted to finish the race. Tricky day,” said Johnson, who finished 28th. “Circumstances and traffic today was really treacherous and caught me out from a balance standpoint. I learned a lot but expected more out of myself out there.”
Pressure skyrocketed for Ericsson as he had to fend off the maddening field two more times around. Ericsson tried cutting off O’Ward’s air and got the job done. Ericsson was ahead of the pack going into Turn 2, continually swerving to deny O’Ward’s draft and a shot at the win.
Coming to the white flag, O’Ward made the move but had to tuck back in line as Ericsson continued leading, doing the same maneuver. Shortly thereafter, the final caution came out in Turn 2 involving Sage Karam, sealing the deal for Ericsson over O’Ward.
Bittersweet moment for O’Ward as a scenario out of his control left him annoyed, emphasizing it wasn’t the battle with Ericsson nor team that cost him a 500.
“This is our best 500 result and we were just there for the win. I’m so proud of the team. They gave me a freaking rocket ship. They gave Felix a great car and have both cars in the top-five. Just frustrated,” said O’Ward.
“Frustrated that something out of our control is what cost us our chance to get a run on the leader. We did everything to protect against that. We had less downforce, angle and wicker. Still wasn’t fast enough.”
O’Ward got his best Indy 500 finish Sunday. (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment)
Championship leader Will Power, who had finished in the top-four all season, struggled all afternoon and was down in 30th at one point. There would be no second Indy 500 win as he wound up a gob smacking 15th.
As the crowd leaves and the press continues pumping out stories, Ericsson’s third career NTT IndyCar Series victory will be a career highlight. That’ll never be taken away from the 32-year-old. Now, the business shifts to the Detroit Grand Prix for one last go-around in Belle Isle until the race moves back to the streets of downtown Detroit in 2023.
Live coverage from Belle Isle begins Sunday, June 5 at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA Network. The new Indy 500 champion and series points leader Ericsson won the first race in Belle Isle last year while O’Ward took home the second.
106th Indianapolis 500 Results
- 8 – Marcus Ericsson
- 5 – Pato O’Ward
- 1 – Tony Kanaan
- 7 – Felix Rosenqvist
- 27 – Alexander Rossi
- 20 – Conor Daly
- 06 – Helio Castroneves
- 60 – Simon Pagenaud
- 10 – Alex Palou
- 23 – Santino Ferrucci
- 6 – Juan Pablo Montoya
- 11 – J.R. Hildebrand
- 2 – Josef Newgarden
- 15 – Graham Rahal
- 12 – Will Power
- 18 – David Malukas (R)
- 14 – Kyle Kirkwood (R)
- 33 – Ed Carpenter
- 29 – Devlin DeFrancesco (R)
- 30 – Christian Lundgaard (R)
- 9 – Scott Dixon
- 98 – Marco Andretti
- 24 – Sage Karam (-1 Lap)
- 45 – Jack Harvey (-1 Lap)
- 51 – Takuma Sato (-1 Lap)
- 4 – Dalton Kellett (-2 Laps)
- 25 – Stefan Wilson (-2 Laps)
- 48 – Jimmie Johnson (R) (Accident)
- 3 – Scott McLaughlin (Accident)
- 26 – Colton Herta (Mechanical)
- 28 – Romain Grosjean (R) (Accident)
- 77 – Callum Ilott (R) (Accident)
- 21 – Rinus VeeKay (Accident)
