Marcus Ericsson survived a tense two-lap shootout with Pato O’Ward to take the biggest win of his racing career in the Indianapolis 500.
Ericsson burst into contention in the final 25 laps of 200 around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
His Ganassi team mate Scott Dixon, who had dominated the first three quarters of the race, picked up a drive-through penalty for speeding into the pit lane on his final pit stop. It denied Dixon a second win for another year, despite sitting on pole for the second year in a row.
With 20 laps to go, Ericsson was running behind the McLaren SP duo of Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward. He overtook O’Ward on lap 181, then grabbed the virtual lead of the race on lap 183 when he went past his compatriot Rosenqvist.
And once all cars made their final pit stops, Ericsson had a three-second lead to O’Ward, thanks to perfectly-timed overtakes on lapped backmarkers.
But all of that appeared to change with five laps remaining when another of his team mates, super rookie Jimmie Johnson, crashed out at turn two. That caused the fifth full-course caution of the race and, eventually, a red flag to set up a two-lap shoot-out to decide the biggest race of the IndyCar season.
Ericsson drove defensively for the final five miles, doing all that he could to keep O’Ward behind him. O’Ward had a fantastic run out of turn four as the leaders took the white flag, and sized up a move around Ericsson – only for the Swede to slam the door on the Mexican driver. A final-lap crash for Sage Karam outside the top ten brought the race under yellow for the final time, securing the victory for Ericsson.
Ericsson may have been the most overlooked of Ganassi’s five drivers that had a shot of winning this race. But the former protege of 1999 winner Kenny Brack will have his name and likeness etched on the fabled Borg-Warner Trophy as the winner of the Indy 500 – the defining moment of a career that has twisted through Europe and Japan, four seasons in the GP2…