Marcus Ericsson overcame a late restart to win the 106th Indianapolis 500. Image courtesy of James Black / Penske Entertainment
Marcus Ericsson outlasted a late restart and held off Pato O'Ward to claim victory in the 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
The 31-year-old Swedish driver pushed his No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing to the lead on Lap 189 of 200, and had a significant gap to O'Ward and appeared poised to take a comfortable run to the finish. However, it all changed on Lap 194 after Jimmie Johnson, Ericsson's teammate, suffered a hard crash in Turn 2 and brought out the yellow - and then red - flag.
The incident set up winner-take-all green-white-checkered restart which saw Ericsson snaking the field to the restart and constantly moving to gain on O'Ward's No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.
The two approached Turn 1 on the final lap where O'Ward attempted an outside pass, but Ericsson held on. O'Ward ran out of time as the caution fell moments later after Sage Karam crashed on the backstretch, leaving Ericsson to collect the checkered flag under yellow.
Ericsson becomes the second driver from Sweden to capture Indy 500 glory, joining countryman and 1999 winner Kenny Brack.
Tony Kanaan finished third in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, ahead of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist. Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi rounded out the rest of the top five.
Conor Daly climbed to the lead early, but ended up placing sixth in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. The Meyer Shank Racing duo of Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
Reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou claimed ninth, with Santino Ferrucci pushing the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet to the final spot of the top 10.
This story will be updated.
No comments:
Post a Comment