INDIANAPOLIS —Legend has it that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway picks its winners. The Speedway picked Marcus Ericsson, but also dealt cruel twists of fate to most of his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates.
While Ericsson carried the spoils of victory and Tony Kanaan finished a solid third, Alex Palou, Scott Dixon and Jimmie Johnson all dealt with the sorrow of defeat at Sunday’s (May 29) Indianapolis 500.
Ericsson used a well-timed fuel stop and hard charging in the final quarter of the 200-lap race to get the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to the front. Some creative weaving in the final five miles of the race helped keep the Swedish driver in front of the attacking Pato O’Ward as the race concluded.
Behind the leading duo, Kanaan briefly lost third place to Felix Rosenqvist, but the 2004 IndyCar Series champion managed to recover the position before the race ended. Kanaan kept his car underneath him to finish the race, which could not be said of Johnson.
After pitting late in the race, Johnson lost control of his car in the second turn with just over a handful of laps to go. The crash led to a late race caution that turned into a complete race stoppage with only four laps remaining.
This incident with @jimmiejohnson in turn 4 is what brought the red flag out with 4 laps to go.
After an eventful Month of May, the No. 48 was not able to finish the #Indy500.#INDYCAR // #Indy500 // @CGRTeams pic.twitter.com/6BUdy74nua
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 29, 2022
“It just spun around,” Johnson said. “I was really surprised that it turned around that early. I don’t know the situation, the bad situation I put myself in, but it came around so quick, so I hate to do that, hate to do that that late in the race, very treacherous environment out there, learned a lot, track position was the name of the game and we just never had it all day long and had the crash there at the end.”
While Johnson’s race ended on a flatbed, Dixon’s in essence ended…
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