‘You have to make smart decisions’ coming from 17th at Indy, says 2022 500 winner Ericsson

Marcus Ericsson says that making progress in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 from his start slot of P17 will be dependent on being smart.

Ericsson has shone at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, racking up not only a victory in 2022, but also a very close runner-up finish in 2023, when he lost out to Newgarden’s last-lap pass, and another second place last year until being disqualified for an unapproved part on his front suspension.

Although he was the fastest of the three Andretti Global cars in qualifying, that still only leaves Ericsson in the middle of the sixth row. Like teammates Kyle Kirkwood and Will Power, he is confident of the pace of his car in race trim, although tomorrow’s Carb Day practice could provide crucial information depending on weather.

“Monday was the best day of the month for us,” said Ericsson, who won the race with Chip Ganassi Racing, but switched to Andretti Global for 2024. “The car seemed to be in a really good window. It was nice going back to race trim. We felt already from last year we have a good race setup. We've tweaked on that, worked on that, improved that a little bit last week.

“Again, on Monday felt super comfortable. I think the conditions were obviously a little bit different with the heat. There were some people you could see had cars a bit more tricky to drive than my No. 28 car.

“The biggest thing for me is the question mark with the weather, being cooler tomorrow, then seeing where the forecast goes for Sunday, try and make decisions on setup depending on that. I think that's going to be the big one. That's why I think tomorrow will be relevant to see how the car feels in those cooler temps compared to Monday where it was hot and tricky.”

Regarding being right in the middle of 11 rows of three heading to Turn 1, Ericsson commented, “I feel like at the start of these races, you have to make smart decisions. You can only lose the race in the first lap, you can't win anything there. Just got to be smart out there, sort of get into the rhythm of the race.

“We still have a great chance from where we're starting. We have plenty of time to move up through the field if we have a good race car. Biggest thing is being smart out there. I think these two next to me [Christian Lundgaard and Marcus Armstrong] are usually pretty smart out there, so I'm not worried about that.”

Asked what he learned from last year when he lost out to Alex Palou 13 laps from the end, Ericsson said, “Obviously I have been studying last year's race quite a bit, and the last couple years, and it seems like the starts and restarts, it's crazier and crazier every year that goes by.

“I think the big thing that really stands out is the pit sequence. That's really where you can make a big difference. That's where this race comes down so much to the teamwork, having a good pit crew, but you as a driver, in laps, out laps, stopping on your marks, making smart decisions on pit road. Especially on the yellow stops, there's always a lot of chaos down in pit lane.

“You look at a guy like Josef [Newgarden] last year, starting from the back, moving up to the top five, he didn't do that many overtakes on track, he was just executing really well with his team all day until they had an issue… You need a team effort to really have a good day on Sunday…”

“Yeah, we're starting a little bit further back than we would have liked. But it’s such a long race, I don't see a problem with that. If we feel strong in our race cars, we have plenty of time to move up through the field. As a team, we're super focused on that – get all three cars up front by the end of it.”