By David Morgan, Associate Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – Same story, different day.
Marcus Ericsson has been here before, finishing second in the Indianapolis 500, and knows the sting of coming so close to victory in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
In undoubtedly the best performance of the season for the driver of the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda and possibly the best run since moving over to the team last season, the Swede had another Indy 500 win in his grasp only to have it snatched away by the Thanos of the NTT IndyCar Series paddock – Alex Palou.
“This race is a winner-takes-it-all all kind of race, and I had that race covered. It’s pretty painful. Yeah. It is,” Ericsson said afterwards.
With the 200-lap race evolving into a fuel mileage game in the closing laps, everything hinged on the final pit stop and who would pull off the best strategy play to position themselves for victory.
Among the leaders, Ericsson was the last to duck off onto pit road, having stayed out until 25 laps to go before coming to the attention of is crew one last time.
Cycling back out on track ahead of the leaders, including Palou, it seemed that Ericsson was in the catbird seat with the finish of the race drawing nearer.
However, as he and Palou paced the 2.5-mile track behind the lapped cars of Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster, Ericsson’s lead would evaporate with 14 laps remaining when Palou made a bold move into Turn 1 to assume the lead.
Though he had lost the lead, Ericsson tried to recompose himself to make another run at Palou, but the chance never came and he would have to settle for another close call at Indianapolis. Something Ericsson said will keep him up at night as he replays things over in his mind.
“I had those lap cars ahead, and I was struggling a little bit in the dirty air. Alex got kind of a run on me, but I thought he wasn’t going to go for it. And that’s the thing that’s going to keep me up at night for a while, that moment and what I did and didn’t do,” said Ericsson.
“To look back at that — like I said, that’s going to keep me up at night for a while.”
While Sunday’s finish does carry an extra sting, giving the gravity of it, Ericsson noted that having a strong run on the day will do wonders for the team going forward as the IndyCar Series enters its summer stretch.
“It was really looking like a bad day, but that’s the cool thing with us and with the 28 crew, we keep fighting,” said Ericsson. “We keep never giving up, and we keep fighting through. And that’s what we did today.
“I had some really good stints there in the second half of the race where I felt the car came more to me and put us back in contention, and then the last stop was really good, good call on the strategy, as well. I’m really proud of that fight-back.
“It stinks. Second is a good result, but here it’s not a good result. Here you’ve got to win.”
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