Indy 500: Marcus Ericsson secures prestigious title in dramatic fashion
29th May 2022Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson was in the right place, at the right time after a sprint to the finish allowed him to secure the Indy 500 title.
How the race unfolded…
Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon got the race underway for the 106th Indianapolis 500 but it wasn’t long until the pole sitter lost the lead to his teammate, Alex Palou. However, the two drivers kept trading the lead between themselves, ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus Veekay, in the opening laps as they worked to save fuel – as a result of reduced drag.
On lap 31, the field started to make their first set of pit stops. Dixon was one of the drivers who peeled into the pit lane and got another set of red-ringed firestone tyres, and a front wing adjustment. Palou quickly followed suit a lap later, as did Veekay two laps after Dixon. As a result, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward became the race leader, ahead of Felix Rosenqvist, before the two drivers peeled into the pit lane.
This allowed Palou and Dixon to return to the top of the order. But, as Veekay rejoined to the track closer to the Chip Ganassi drivers than he was before, it allowed the Dutch driver to overtake Dixon to go P2. However, this move was all for nothing as Veekay found himself in the barrier when his rear tyres lost traction at turn two. Veekay became the first driver to retire from the Indy 500, in 2022.
Luckily, the driver was okay and was able to get out of the car and head to the track marshal’s truck.
A caution was quickly dished out as the marshal’s cleared away the Ed Carpenter car.
As the race entered its 47th lap, Veekay’s car had been removed and Palou led the field back to green flag running. The Spanish driver managed to go into turn one unchallenged by his teammate, Dixon, but the New Zealander regained the lead of the race a lap later.
On lap 54, Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta nearly lost control as he went around the penultimate corner when his rear tyres snapped out on him. Fortunately, the snap was brief and the young American was able to quickly regain control of his car and keep it away from the wall. But, it allowed Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott to close down the Andretti driver and overtake him on the main straight.
At the end of lap 68, Chip Ganassi’s Jimmie Johnson was the first driver to venture into the pits to conduct the second round of pit stops. However, a lap later, Ilott crashed out at turn two. The young British driver lost control of his rear tyres mid corner of turn two and ended up with a heavy hit into the wall. Thankfully, Ilott was able to get out of the car and walk away from the wreck.
At that moment, Palou was entering the pit lane when Ilott crashed. As a result of the following caution, Palou entered the a closed pit lane to refuel his car. But, as the caution failed to end – to allow the Ganassi driver to enter the pits and refuel – Palou was forced to return to the pit lane and face two penalties for entering a closed pit lane.
The race went back to green flag conditions on lap 78 with Dixon in the lead. After all the drama with Palou, Ed Carpenter’s Conor Daly moved up to P2 and followed closely behind the race leader, with less than two-tenths of a second. As the two drivers raced down the main straight, Daly made a move down the inside at the beginning of lap 81 and secured the lead of the race.
However, Dixon quickly returned the favour with Daly and regained the race lead on the following lap.
At the halfway point, 100 laps in, Dixon established a gap of over half a second ahead of Daly who remained in P2, over a second ahead of O’Ward in P3. Five laps later, O’Ward moved up to P2 as Daly went into the pits to conduct his third change of the session.
As Daly made his way out of the pits, Andretti’s Romain Grosjean became victim of turn two – which already took Veekay and Ilott. When Grosjean exited turn two, his car suffered a oversteer and the French driver couldn’t regain the car before it made contact with the wall and ricocheted back across the track, into oncoming traffic.
When the pit lane reopened, under caution conditions, all but three cars ventured into the pit lane. As the majority of the field returned to the pit lane, Daly inherited the race lead ahead of Dixon.
The race got back underway for a third time, on lap 113, and Dixon returned to the lead of the pack as he overtook Daly down the main straight. But, it was only for a brief moment as O’Ward made a move on the outside line and stole the lead away from the New Zealander. However, Dixon regained the lead, a lap later.
A fourth caution was brought out, with 49 laps left to go, as Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin crashed out at turn three. The Penske driver lost control as he entered the penultimate corner of IMS, due the highspeed nature of the track, he skipped across the grass, into turn four, before the car dragged itself down the wall and to a stop.
With 43 laps left to go, O’Ward led the pack back to green flag running. However, it wasn’t long until Dixon went back up to the top of the order as the field raced down the main straight and into turn one. But, Dixon was soon issued with a speeding violation which ruined the New Zealander’s chances of securing the Indy 500 win.
The former F1 driver, Marcus Ericsson pipped Rosenqvist to the net race lead as the two drivers raced into the first corner with 17 laps to go. However, the Swedish driver had traffic to navigate through. Fortunately, the Ganassi driver managed to weave past Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan and Dale Coyne Racing’s Takuma Sato with ease.
Only six laps remained on the board until the end of the Indy 500 as Johnson crashed out at turn two, the corner which caught out a number of drivers across the event. It was found Johnson clipped the apex of turn two and his rear tyres lost traction. However, the American driver kept the throttle in as he spun out and nose dived into the barrier. Johnson was okay and soon got out of his car, once it came to a stop.
As a result of the crash, and with only four laps remaining, race control red flagged the session.
With only two laps remaining, Ericsson got the race back underway as he swerved down the main straight to break the slipstream for O’Ward. On the following lap, O’Ward tried one last time to try to snatch the lead away from the clutches of Ericsson. However, the Swedish driver managed to keep the McLaren driver at bay to drive to victory.
That’s it for the article: Indy 500: Marcus Ericsson secures prestigious title in dramatic fashion! What did you enjoy about the race? Let us know in the comments!
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