Marcus Ericsson wins Indianapolis 500

Marcus Ericsson wins Indianapolis 500. Marcus Ericsson had to leave Formula One to become a worldwide star, which he did when he won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

Ericsson took control of the race late, primarily because of teammate Scott Dixon’s speeding penalty. 

Chip Ganassi Racing was close to winning until teammate Jimmie Johnson crashed with four laps left. 

It caused a rare red-flag stoppage at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

IndyCar is one of the most real motorsports because there aren’t many fake cautions or stops that could change the outcome. 

But when IndyCar told the cars to go to pit road, the crowd of more than 300,000 roared. 

It was the largest sporting event since the pandemic, and only a few thousand people kept it from being a sellout.

The stoppage gave Pato O’Ward and the other challengers almost 12 minutes on pit road to figure out how to catch Ericsson and win.

With only two laps left, the race started again, and Ericsson quickly passed O’Ward. 

Ericsson gave the Mexican one last chance to take the lead, but O’Ward knew not push the issue.

“No, if I had done that, he would have put me in the wall,” O’Ward said.

Sage Karam crashed into traffic on the last lap, bringing out the yellow flag. 

Ericsson won the race while the yellow flag was out. Karam was taken to a hospital to be checked out because his muscles hurt.

It was Ericsson’s third IndyCar win out of 52 races. All three of Ericsson’s wins were strange in that he beat them after the red flag stopped. 

But he didn’t think he had won the Indy 500 as he waited in his cockpit for the race to start again.

Chip Ganassi, who owns the team, rode on the side of Ericsson’s car to the podium and won his fifth Indy 500. 

Ericsson is the second Swede in 106 years to win the Indy 500. Kenny Brack was the first in 1999.

Ericsson poured milk from his jug all over his face and then gave Ganassi the bottle so the boss could drink from it. 

Ganassi hadn’t won the 500 in ten years, so he sent five good drivers to Indy to break the streak.