Ericsson’s epic charge earns victory in IndyCar’s first race at Markham

It took a brave strategy, a fast car and an error by the pole-sitter, but Marcus Ericsson scored his fifth NTT IndyCar Series victory, with arguably the greatest drive of his career. Having made his last pit stop far later than his principal rivals, the Andretti Global driver charged from fifth to first, passing teammate Will Power, Alex Palou and erstwhile leader Romain Grosjean to claim a brilliant win, his first since 2023, in IndyCar's inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham.

Grosjean held on to second for Dale Coyne Racing’s first podium of the season, ahead of Power who clawed his way from 25th on the grid to score his fourth third place of the season, a hair ahead of Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing entry.

Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard were the top Chevrolet finishers, as Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin slipped behind Rinus VeeKay’s again-impressive Juncos Hollinger Racing car, while David Malukas hit a wall while running just behind teammate McLaughlin in the closing laps.

It was a chaotic race – 25 of the 90 laps were spent with the field behind the pace car, as a result of six caution periods. Two high-profile exits were those of pole-sitter Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan, and Kyle Kirkwood in the third Andretti machine, both of whom crashed on the outside of Turn 3 after clipping the inside wall.

That means Palou’s points lead with four races to go is an extraordinary 133 points over Kirkwood, 137 ahead of Malukas, and 139 over Lundgaard.

AS IT HAPPENED...

From the alternate startline on the long back straight out of the hairpin at Turn 5, pole man Foster initially sprinted away from his pole position pursued by Lundgaard and McLaughlin, pursued by Ericsson, Hauger and VeeKay. Scott Dixon had gotten around Malukas to claim seventh while Schumacher was up to ninth.

The big mover was Kirkwood, taking full advantage of running alternate tires while surrounded by runners on primaries, and was up six places from his penalized grid position of 22nd. The main loser was Caio Collet who pitted with a puncture and damage.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist was the first driver to go off strategy, getting off his primary Firestones to pick up a set of reds on lap 5. This was a necessity, since he had picked up a puncture. Christian Rasmussen, by contrast, pitted his ECR car early out of choice.

Josef Newgarden, another person who started at the rear of the field, pitted on lap 11. A lap later, the first of the front runners pitted, VeeKay ducking out of sixth place to take on a fresh set of reds, which he saved by not going for pole in the Firestone Fast Six on Saturday.

O’Ward and Marcus Armstrong stopped and emerged just before a full course caution flew for Schumacher crunching into the Turn 4 wall on his 14th lap and breaking his right front suspension. Lundgaard elected to pit his McLaren under caution, and Dale Coyne Racing’s Grosjean also pitted but, the other front-runners remained on track, so VeeKay’s early stop wasn’t yet paying dividends. He was down in 12th.

Ahead for the lap 19 restart were Foster, McLaughlin, Ericsson, Dennis Hauger, Dixon, Malukas, Palou, Alexander Rossi, Kyffin Simpson, Kirkwood and Power. Palou got around Malukas, but Hauger and VeeKay had it far worse, getting muscled down the field to 20th and 17th respectively. In fact, Malukas also lost a lot of time to braking issues, and after losing seven spots, he elected to make his first pit stop.

The drivers on the move following the restart were the Andretti Global cars of Kirkwood and Power on reds and blacks respectively in sixth and ninth, and Nolan Siegel in eighth who had made his stop for fresh reds and was taking full advantage of the grip, displaying a confidence we hadn’t seen from the outgoing McLaren driver for a few races. Almost unnoticed, Rosenqvist had retired with a fuel pump failure on lap 18.

Palou pitted from fifth on lap 28, and emerged in 19th, well ahead of Malukas and Newgarden. McLaughlin ducked in from second the following lap and came out 16th, while Power passed Siegel for what was now sixth before pitting. Ericsson, meanwhile, laid down some fast times to gain on Foster, before pitting on lap 31.

The timing was perfect, because then came a full-course caution, as Armstrong spun the second Meyer Shank car at the Turn 5 hairpin and couldn’t restart unassisted. The drivers who had run long – Foster, Dixon and Kirkwood – were now caught out and cursing their luck. Early stoppers also took the opportunity to stop at this point in the 90-lap race.

The restart thus saw Siegel leading Grosjean, Ericsson, Sting Ray Robb, Graham Rahal, McLaughlin, Power Palou, Rossi and Hauger. Meanwhile Foster, Dixon and Kirkwood restarted 12th, 13th and 16th.

Siegel made the best of his reds, pursued by three drivers on primaries, while Rahal passed Robb and Power passed both McLaughlin and Robb who also lost spots Palou and Rossi. Then contact between Dixon and Hauger at Turn 10 spun the Ganassi ace around and left Rasmussen with nowhere to go except the wall. Out came the yellows. Robb and the restarted Dixon elected to pit, but the No. 9 Ganassi car had major rear suspension damage.

The lap 41 restart saw Grosjean take the lead at the hairpin, while Foster passed both Palou and Power to leap into fifth, before deposing teammate Rahal. Palou then slipped down the field, and got nudged by VeeKay who sustained a broken front wing.

Foster’s incredible pace took him onto the tail of Ericsson in the blink of an eye on lap 43, but as he dived down the inside of the Andretti driver at Turn 3, he clipped the inside wall which spat him hard into the outside wall. The mortified Briton gave the thumbs-up as the AMR Safety Team oversaw his extrication and removal of the car.

McLaren’s No. 6 crew decided this was the right time to pit Siegel, and Rahal’s team elected to do the same, so the restart would see Grosjean leading the Andretti trio of Ericsson, Power and Kirkwood, with Lundgaard and O’Ward next up ahead of Rossi, Palou, McLaughlin and Malukas. Only the top two would be on primaries.

Repairs to the track delayed the restart to lap 51, and it was largely clean until Palou went to the inside of Rossi, made contact with the ECR car that cut its tire down, and McLaughlin took advantage to go around the pair of them. At the conclusion of lap 53, Grosjean pitted from the lead, which should have left the Andretti cars running 1-2-3. However, Kirkwood made a similar error to Foster, tagging the inside wall at Turn 3, and crashing into the outside wall.

McLaughlin, Malukas, VeeKay, Palou, Hauger and Simpson all pitted under this caution, which meant Grosjean was up to seventh. The Lap 59 restart saw Grosjean up to sixth past Robb, but Siegel spun Newgarden at the hairpin, and the Penske car stalled, bringing out another caution.

Things got better yet for the Coyne driver, as Power, Lundgaard and O’Ward all pitted under the yellow, promoting Grosjean to second behind Ericsson, chased by McLaughlin, Malukas, VeeKay, Palou, Hauger and Simpson. Power, O’Ward and Lundgaard ran 9th through 11th. Power and Lundgaard were on reds, O’Ward on blacks.

Ericsson made a fine restart on lap 63 as McLaughlin sized up Grosjean, while Power muscled past Simpson for eighth. Grosjean knew he didn’t need to pursue the flying Ericsson, as the Swede would need to pit soon, and he was content to see McLaughlin gradually receding in his mirrors. Palou, passed VeeKay for fifth on lap 66.

By the time he pitted on lap 70, Ericsson had pulled a 13.3s lead on Grosjean, who had a 1.5s margin on McLaughlin. The latter had a new pursuer, because Palou had deposed Malukas for fourth. But Ericsson’s brilliant charge had paid off because he emerged in sixth, just ahead of Hauger and just behind VeeKay. However, he couldn’t hold onto it, as Hauger tried to pass Ericsson, failed, and Power passed them both to move onto VeeKay’s tail.

With 16 laps to go, Palou passed McLaughlin for second at Turn 6 and started trying to close the 2.3s margin to Grosjean. On lap 76, Power passed VeeKay for fifth and started hunting down the Penskes, while Ericsson on lap 77 also deposed the Juncos Hollinger driver to claim sixth.

Power snatched fourth from Malukas on lap 78 and third from McLaughlin the next lap, just as Palou made an error that lost him time to Grosjean. It was only temporary; he regained his composure to shave the gap down to 1.5s. Meanwhile, Ericsson had also sliced past the two Penske drivers to take fourth, and with zero fuel issues, he closed up onto Power’s tail, as the pair of them reeled in Palou, who had now dropped off Grosjean’s tail.

Ericsson made a clumsy brake-locking pass on Power at the hairpin on lap 82 which allowed Palou a couple of laps’ reprieve, but on lap 84 Ericsson dived down the inside of Palou, again at the hairpin. With six laps to go, he just had to close a 1.5s gap, while Power also got past Palou.

Further back, the Penskes had lost out to O’Ward, while Malukas also clouted a wall and headed into the pits.

Lap 86 saw Ericsson make a smooth pass on Grosjean for the lead and stretched away, reveling in the car’s handling and with fuel to spare. Power’s hopes of emulating his teammate had taken a knock with fuel concerns, as he couldn’t gain on Grosjean and struggled to hold off Palou to the checkered flag. Still, Power could be satisfied at having climbed from 25th to third place.

O’Ward and Lundgaard claimed fifth and sixth as the first of the Chevy, while VeeKay slipped past McLaughlin in the closing stages to steal seventh. Rahal and Ferrucci completed the top 10.

RESULTS