WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Marcus Ericsson refused to let an early crash in the first race of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s doubleheader define his weekend.
The Swedish driver bounced back to finish fifth in Race 2 at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 1).
“Just lacked a little bit of overall pace, but still, a top five is a really good result for us,” Ericsson told Frontstretch.
Ericsson showed a lot of speed in the first Milwaukee race the day before, running inside the top 10, but that all ended when he and Josef Newgarden tangled on lap 147 of the 250-lap event. The Andretti Global driver was credited with last in the 27-car field.
The two drivers involved had differing opinions on why the wreck happened.
One day later, Ericsson reflected on the wreck.
“It’s part of racing,” Ericsson said. “I see it as a racing incident yesterday. I feel like Josef [Newgarden] could’ve avoided the incident because we had the corner going in, but it’s racing, it’s close racing. No hard feelings.”
Hard feelings or not, the No. 28 team (and the No. 2) had their work cut out for them in getting the car fixed up before Sunday’s race.
“We had the crash yesterday, which wasn’t the biggest of crashes,” Ericsson said. “But still, it was a lot of damage. Three out of four corners of the car, floor, body work. To rebuild that old car and have one install lap in the morning and try to dial that in for the race is really tough. So I’m really thankful for the No. 28 crew that they managed to do that.”
The Andretti team fixed the car in time for Ericsson to start the race without a hitch from the 16th spot. But the 2022 Indianapolis 500 champion didn’t have the speed that he had on Saturday.
“The toughest part was that we had such a good car yesterday,” Ericsson said. “We were fighting for a podium or even a win. … To rebuild the whole cars, it’s not going to be the same. It’s always going to be you need a little bit of time to tune that in, and we didn’t have that today.
“With that in mind, we knew it was going to be a tough day. But I was really eager to get out there today, because, after yesterday, I was just so pissed off going back to the hotel. So I was relieved to get out and show off a strong day for us today.”
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