Near enough was good enough for Marcus Ericsson in NTT IndyCar Series qualifying at Long Beach on Saturday. Ericsson’s final flying lap was just short of being quick enough to knock Kyle Kirkwood off pole, but the Swede is perfectly happy with a …
Near enough was good enough for Marcus Ericsson in NTT IndyCar Series qualifying at Long Beach on Saturday.
Ericsson’s final flying lap was just short of being quick enough to knock Kyle Kirkwood off pole, but the Swede is perfectly happy with a starting spot on the outside of the front row for Sunday’s race.
“I’m really happy with that result today,” said Ericsson, who is chasing his second street course victory of the season after winning the curtain-raiser at St Petersburg.
“Of course, it’s frustrating when you’re that close. I felt like I really maximized my performance today. I felt like I drove really well. On a good lap in Q2, that red flag came out. Had to reset and get one shot to transfer. I was on the outside looking in, and had to go out and deliver and match it to get me to the Fast Six. Then again there on used tires… to be that close to pole, I think that was a really good effort. I’m really happy with that. Race day is our strength. We’ll start on the front row, (and) we should have a good shot at winning tomorrow.”
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Ericsson had targeted qualifying as an area he needed to work on during the winter and said it felt gratifying to see that effort already bearing fruit, even if he struggled to identify what exactly had changed.
“I cannot point at this or this reason is why I’m doing better,” he said. “The progress is about working hard and working on all aspects as a driver.
“I worked with a mental coach, I worked with my physical coach, I worked with my engineer and the rest of the Ganassi crew to get my car more to the liking, to understand the tires better. It’s a combination of all those things that makes a difference, I think. So it’s hard to pinpoint something. I’m happy I’m doing it. I feel like I’m stronger and better than ever, so… I’m going to continue doing it.
“We’ve had a good start to the year. We’re making progress. Our weakness, or my weakness, has been qualifying in IndyCar so far. I think our form this year shows we’re making progress. All my IndyCar career has been about making progress, getting better and better, stronger and stronger. Now we’re a better package, better driver this year again.
“I think everyone should look out, because we’re in it and we’re going to fight it all the way through.”
Kyle Kirkwood used a tire advantage to maximum effect to claim the first NTT IndyCar Series pole position of his career at Long Beach on Saturday. Kirkwood’s 1m06.2878s in the No.27 Andretti Autosport Honda was just enough to see off a late …
Kyle Kirkwood used a tire advantage to maximum effect to claim the first NTT IndyCar Series pole position of his career at Long Beach on Saturday.
Kirkwood’s 1m06.2878s in the No.27 Andretti Autosport Honda was just enough to see off a late challenge from Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson — the Swede ultimately came up just 0.03s short — but the tone for the final battle for pole was actually set in the previous session, when Ericsson’s teammate Marcus Armstrong hit the wall in the final two minutes.
That set up a late scramble: under IndyCar’s qualifying rules, the remaining cars in the group were given 30s after the green flag to take the opportunity for a single final flyer. That, in turn, created an additional complication. Use the final set of stickered alternates to secure a spot in the Fast 6, or try to get into the Fast 6 with the tires that are already on the car and use the last set to try for pole?
Kirkwood went for Option B. Everyone else went for Option A. And by the time the Fast 6 was over, several of them were wishing they hadn’t.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Kirkwood immediately after climbing from the car. “Our car is on fire this weekend. We’re constantly chipping away at it, getting it better and better. Third weekend with the team and I’ve already got a pole. I couldn’t be happier.
“I knew this day would come. I didn’t know if it was going to come this early; there are a lot of tough guys out here. It’s kind of solidifying myself; it’s kind of, ‘He can do this.’ Starting from the pole, a lot of people win from the pole… It’s a good moment, no doubt.”
Ericsson, while just short of the ultimate prize, was still pleased to have earned a front row start for Sunday’s race, while Kirkwood’s teammate Romain Grosjean, who will line up third, was one of several who coulda, woulda, shoulda.
“I had it,” he said. “I messed up at the hairpin and I think I lost about three tenths. It’s my fault — I braked too late, got the rear locking and had to pull the clutch in the middle of the corner to try to keep it going. We didn’t have an easy session; we got really blocked in Q2 then we got the red flag and had to use the new tires to get into the Fast Six. I knew Kyle was going to be good, he’s been driving well all weekend. Really happy for him and all the Andretti team. I think I had it, I just didn’t put it together.”
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The driver on the other end of the blocking that Grosjean referred to was Ganassi’s Alex Palou, who had slowed because he had another car ahead of him. The incident was investigated and dismissed by race control, and Palou will line up alongside Grosjean on the second row.
Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward completed the Fast Six, and it looked a lot like one that got away for O’Ward in particular. The Arrow McLaren driver had been fastest when the red came out, but the No. 5 team didn’t feel confident that his time would stand when everyone else did their last flyer on stickers, and sent him out — albeit at the back of the pack, where they could have the luxury of monitoring everyone else. As soon as it became clear that his passage to the Fast Six was safe, engineer Will Anderson sent repeated pleas over the radio for O’Ward to back off and save his tires. Those instructions appear to have gone unheeded.
O’Ward is far from the only driver left to ponder what might have been, though. Colton Herta took the same gamble to save the new rubber for the Fast Six as Kirkwood, but in his case it resulted in his being bumped to seventh at the end of the second round.
Just behind Herta are two-thirds of Team Penske, with Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin qualifying eighth and ninth respectively.
“Frustrating,” Newgarden said. “I think there’s time in the car, I just can’t extract it. I can’t put the lap together. I don’t know where we are at on the long run this weekend, but certainly in the short run it’s been hard to put together.”
Compounding Team Penske’s irritation, Newgarden had also been responsible for bumping Will Power out of the opening round.
“We had fuel for four plus three, and I did my three and didn’t do four in the first round because it went red,” said Power, who will start 13th. “I missed out by that amount to Newgarden last year for the top six. Same thing.
“It’s difficult (to try something with strategy) with the two stops. If it was three stops, you could do some big strategy stuff. The two stops with the small windows make it harder, but we’ll do what we can.”
The red flag that Power referred to was prompted by a big crash by David Malukas in the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD Honda. Malukas hit the wall at Turn 9 and continued on in the belief that the car had not been seriously damaged. The first indication that it had not came at Turn 4, when it speared itself into the outside wall as soon as he hit the brakes.
“I just have a little bit of a headache,” said Malukas after he emerged from the medical center.
“It was unfortunate. I started the lap previous and looked at the data and knew I had to brake a little bit deeper to catch up some time into Turn 9. So I tried braking a little bit deeper and was probably two laps too early, so I ended up losing the car and tapped the wall on the left.
“I gave the car a bit of a shake going down the straight and it felt OK but clearly it wasn’t, so going into Turn 4 I went in and hit the brake and it just whipped out on me and I couldn’t save it. At that point I was just letting go and taking the impact. My mistake. I had a chance to pit and maybe we could have fixed something and kept going, so two mistakes on my part.”
Malukas will need further evaluation before being cleared to race tomorrow.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to break down Friday’s practice session at Long Beach where the Swede spent the afternoon inside the top four.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to break down Friday’s practice session at Long Beach where the Swede spent the afternoon inside the top four.
For The Win spoke with Indy 500 champ Marcus Ericsson less than 24 hours after his dramatic victory.
All Marcus Ericsson had to do to win the 2022 Indianapolis 500 on Sunday was just hold on for a few more laps until the checkered flag.
He was out front on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s mammoth 2.5-mile track, only a few miles from his first Indy 500 win and third win of his four-season IndyCar Series career since switching from Formula 1. But when Ericsson’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Jimmie Johnson, crashed, the red flag came out, halting the race and evaporating his substantial lead.
So for about 10 minutes, Ericsson and the what was left of the Indy 500 field waited on pit road, strategizing.
For 31-year-old Ericsson, it was all about a strong restart for the two-lap shootout that would follow. He had to get out front and hold off his hard-charging competitors, Pato O’Ward and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan.
And as the Swedish racer led the field through the last lap with the checkered flag practically in sight, a yellow caution flag came out for an incident, ending the race and making Ericsson the 2022 Indy 500 champ when he crossed the finish line at the Yard of Bricks.
For The Win spoke with Ericsson on Monday, less than 24 hours after his dramatic victory.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
(Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Sports)
First off, congratulations! What does it feel like to be the latest Indy 500 champion?
I’m still sort of trying to wrap my head around the fact that I won that race. It’s the biggest race in the world, and it’s something you work so hard [for], and you sort of dream of it for so long. And to actually do it and actually win it is just, yeah, it’s just an unreal feeling. So it’s gonna take a while to sort of understand that it’s real, I think.
So the red flag comes out, four laps to go and two after the restart. When you were sitting on pit road for 10 minutes or so, what did those few minutes feel like for you in the driver’s seat just waiting?
It was some of the toughest minutes of my life, for sure, because I knew how close I was to winning this race and how much just race means. So it was hard to sort of keep focused.
I was, first of all, I was so angry that that red flag came out because I had the race won pretty much. I was counting down the laps, had a big gap to [Pato O’Ward in second]. So I was just praying for not a yellow flag or a red flag, and then that happens.
And, of course, I had to regroup myself and refocus and make a plan for those last two laps and sort of figure out a way to still win. So it was very, very tough. It was very tough mentally to sort of stay sharp. But I had a plan in my head when we restarted, and I follow that plan to a millimeter, and it worked out.
What was that plan, knowing that there was a two-lap shootout, and you had a target on your back because you had the lead?
The plan for me, it was to try and break Pato’s toe, so it was kind of trying [to] weave on the straights to make it harder for him to follow me. And then I make sure I covered the inside line into [Turn 1] because I knew that was the best spot for him to overtake. So it was all about trying to do that and hoping that would be enough.
You were weaving all over the track. It sort of felt like watching a video game. Did it feel like that as you were driving, trying to keep Pato O’Ward at a distance?
I was doing everything possible to try and keep him behind. And you know, you have to take all the tricks up your sleeve to try and make that work. It was pretty, pretty intense out there for sure.
A lot of Indy 500 winners say that they win the race, and that makes them want to win another one even more. Do you already have your eye on the 2023 Indy 500?
I do, yes. First of all, I’m gonna go and try and win a championship because we’re leading the championship now after this weekend. So that’s the next goal. But of course, yeah, you win one here and see how amazing and special it is, it’s just want to make you win more.
After you won team owner Chip Ganassi climbed in onto your car for a moment in Victory Lane. What did you say to you in that moment?
(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
He was just so happy, and [said], “I knew you could do it,” and stuff like that. You could see how much he meant to him as well. It’s been 10 years since he won this race, and he deserved it. He’s putting such a good team there, and I’m so proud to be part of the organization. And this month, either one of us five Ganassi cars could have won that race because we were so fast all month. So I’m just super happy to be part of that team.
Did you know that the caution flag had come out right at the very end of that last lap? Did you know that you had won it before you actually crossed the finish line?
Yeah, I did. I saw the caution come out, and then in the last corner, I realized this is going to be the checkered flag. So it was very cool those last seconds before finishing the lap and taking the checkered flag and sort of realizing the explosion of feelings for sure.
Have you slept at all?
Two hours.
Did you get a chance to celebrate with your team at all yet?
No, but my family’s here from Sweden and my girlfriend and some others, like sponsors. So we went out for dinner last night, and I was super nice. I was trying to sleep. I couldn’t fall asleep because I was too excited, and then when I eventually fell asleep, I woke up like two hours later because I couldn’t sleep. So I’m exhausted, but I’m excited at the same time.
What’s been the best thing about the last 20 or so hours since you won the Indy 500?
(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
It’s hard to pick one moment. But I think the milk is obviously such a special thing here for the 500. And it’s something you picture in your head that you dream of for so long. So I think that was very special. And then I think the victory lap, waving to all the fans was also so cool to sort of try and take it all in.
What did that milk tastes like?
It tasted amazing. It was very cold and good.
How long did you stay in your milk-covered fire suit?
Until like 8 p.m. last night. And I’m still in it now. I mean, I got out of it to sleep but I’m still in it now. It smells good [laughs].
Las locas últimas dos vueltas fueron después de una bandera roja con sólo cuatro vueltas por correr, lo que elevó el suspenso. Pero Ericsson dio un espectáculo y emergió como campeón.
Y cuando llegó el momento de it al Victory Lane y celebrar, siguió la tradición con un par de tragos de leche entera – es lo que había solicitado en la encuesta de la American Dairy Association Indiana – y después se la echó en la cabezay la cara.
The wild final two laps followed a brief red flag with just four laps to go, elevating the suspense of the race’s end. But Ericsson put on a show and came out on top.
And when it was finally his time to head to Victory Lane and celebrate, he followed tradition with a few sips of whole milk — that’s what he requested on the milk poll from the American Dairy Association Indiana — and then dumped it on his head and face.
The 106th Indianapolis 500 ended in incredible and dramatic fashion — a thrilling two-lap shootout with Marcus Ericsson putting on a show to hold on for the victory.
Leading up to the finish, Indy 500 rookie Jimmie Johnson crashed with about five laps left, and officials threw up the red flag, momentarily pausing the race and building suspense for the last couple laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s iconic 2.5-mile oval.
Johnson’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Ericsson, had the lead going into the restart, followed by Pato O’Ward, Tony Kanaan, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi.
It was a wild restart, but Ericsson shot out front and aggressively weaved all over the track, as O’Ward charged after him and tried (but failed) to find the perfect spot to make a pass. But the Swedish driver showed off some incredible defensive skills as he held on tight to the lead.
And on the last lap, a yellow flag came out for a crash toward the back of the field, and Ericsson won the 2022 Indy 500 under caution. Despite that, the final laps were beyond captivating:
Ericsson became the second Swedish driver to win the race, and he snapped a 10-year Indy 500 drought for Chip Ganassi Racing. It was also Ericsson’s first win of the 2022 season and his third career
