Marcus Ericsson of Sweden races to victory in Indianapolis 500, wins crown for Chip Ganassi Racing

INDIANAPOLIS — Marcus Ericsson had to leave Formula One to become a global superstar — a goal achieved Sunday when the Swedish driver won the Indianapolis 500.

Ericsson took control of the race late — largely because of teammate Scott Dixon’s speeding penalty — and had it under control for Chip Ganassi Racing until a crash by teammate Jimmie Johnson with four laps remaining brought out a rare red-flag stoppage at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

IndyCar is among the purest forms of motorsports and rarely throws artificial cautions or issues stoppages that might change the outcome. But the crowd of more than 300,000 — only a few thousand shy of a sellout and the largest sporting event since the pandemic began — roared when IndyCar called the cars to pit road.

The stoppage gave Pato O’Ward and the rest of the challengers almost 12 minutes on pit road to strategize how to catch Ericsson for the win.

The race resumed with two laps remaining and Ericsson easily got the jump on O’Ward. The Mexican got one final look for the lead that Ericsson defended and O’Ward knew not to force the issue.

“Nah, he was going to put me in the wall if I had gone for it,” O’Ward said.

A crash by Sage Karam back in traffic brought out the caution on the final lap and Ericsson coasted to the victory podium under yellow. Karam was transported to a hospital for evaluation of muscular soreness.

For Ericsson, it was his third career IndyCar victory in 52 career starts. All three have been strange wins in that Ericsson sealed the victories after red-flag stoppages, but he never assumed he had the Indy 500 won as he sat inside his cockpit waiting to get back to racing.

“You can never take anything for granted, and there were laps to go,” Ericsson said. “I was praying so hard there was not going to be a yellow, then I knew there was probably going to be one, and it was hard to refocus.”

But he did, and he held on for the biggest victory of his career. Ericsson was winless in five seasons in F1…