INDYCAR: A fitting end to Marcus Ericsson’s terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad Month of May in the 500
by William Soquet, LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: Aaron Skillman/Penske Entertainment
Marcus Ericsson finished last for the 6th time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his #28 Delaware Life Honda crashed out after completing none of the race’s 200 laps.
The finish came in Ericsson’s 85th series start and was his first since Mid-Ohio last year, 13 races ago. Across NTT IndyCar Series history, it was the sixth for the #28, the 112th for Honda, and the 227th for accidents.
The signs at Mid-Ohio were already pointing towards Ericsson exiting Chip Ganassi Racing after 2023. He signed with Andretti Autosport in late August, and it wound up being a transitional time for both team and driver. Andretti Autosport rebranded to Andretti Global following the season and dropped its fourth entry, which Devlin DeFrancesco had piloted in 2023. For all intents and purposes, Ericsson was now a straight swap for the departed Romain Grosjean.
The season appeared to start off on the right foot – Ericsson put his car in the Fast Six at St. Petersburg. However, a gearbox issue dropped him to 23rd. That appeared to be a momentary slipup, not counting a rather unique Thermal weekend that saw him spin in qualifying. The #28 once again advanced to the third round of qualifying and ran a strong race, finishing fifth. However, the pendulum swung back to the other side at Barber to finish April. A rather pedestrian effort saw the car start and finish 18th, as Ericsson drifted into the background of a busy race.
The month of May did not do Ericsson any favors. Amid a rather lackluster performance for Andretti as a whole, the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis road course saw him qualify 21st. He then picked up a handful of spots on the opening lap as the outside line stacked up, but was unable to keep moving forward. He eventually settled into 16th on the final run after the race’s lone caution and finished there.
The mid-pack speed continued in various practices for the Indianapolis 500, certainly an unpleasant development for Ericsson, the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner and 2023 runner-up. On Fast Friday, the day before preliminary qualifications for the 500, Ericsson suffered a shunt after going too low in Turn 4. He hit the outside wall of the front straightaway at corner exit, slid down to the inside wall and then rebounded into the pit attenuator, even kicking up the Shell fuel cone right before the attenuator. While all four wheels stayed on the car, the damage was done. The #28 team rushed to prepare a backup car overnight.
Saturday’s qualifying efforts were to no avail. Ericsson posted the 32nd-best four-lap average, not good enough to lock into the show. As a testament to how close the IndyCar field was, Ericsson’s average of 230.763 miles per hour was a mere fraction off Pietro Fittipaldi’s 231.100, or a quarter-second over the course of four laps. Not a quarter-second each lap, leading to a full second gap – a quarter-second gap for the four laps. Sunday’s qualifying was a little less stressful – Ericsson was second in class, good for 32nd overall. He did not sit on the bubble for a set of nail-biting runs near the end of the clock.
With all his practice and qualifying struggles complete, there remained one frontier for Ericsson to venture through in the month of May: the 500 itself. After a rain delay of four hours, the navy blue-and-teal Delaware Life car finally set sail from the middle of Row 11.
Similar to last year’s Indianapolis 500, when Graham Rahal’s car failed to fire, there was last-place drama before the start of the race. Callum Ilott, making his final start of the year in Arrow McLaren’s #6, experienced an electronics issue during the pace laps. He brought his papaya car down to the pit lane, where it was checked and sent back out. While he got to the tail of the field for the start, going to pit road meant that his spot on the outside of Row 5 went open at the start of the race.
The field mostly sorted itself out into single-file racing by the end of the front straightaway, and everyone anxiously awaited to see if the green track would claim its first victim right away. The answer, unfortunately, was yes. Meyer Shank Racing rookie Tom Blomqvist started 25th, on the inside of Row 9. He filed into line and hit the first turn, but dropped his front drivers-side wheel onto the concrete curbing. The car snapped around on him, and he spun up the track, straight into Ericsson’s line. Both cars then cascaded into the outside wall, ending the day for both. Ericsson’s car climbed up onto Blomqvist’s car when both hit the wall, yet another situation in which IndyCar’s aeroscreen has protected a driver from potential serious injury.
Further down the running order, Ilott was making a run on Pietro Fittipaldi. Fittipaldi checked up and moved one lane up in the middle of Turn 1, hoping to avoid the crash. Ilott did not slow down as much and stuck to the far inside lane, leading to wheel-to-wheel contact between the two. Fittipaldi then lost control of his car and made contact with the outside wall, ending his day as well.
The rest of the Bottom Five filled up fast. Marcus Armstrong’s engine let go during the caution, relegating him to 30th. Katherine Legge’s engine, another Honda power plant, also expired early, leaving her 29th. Linus Lundqvist, Felix Rosenqvist, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Will Power also failed to complete the race.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first opening-lap Indianapolis 500 retirement since 2015, when Conor Daly’s #43 fell out with exhaust issues.
*The bottom seven cars in the running order were all Hondas.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
33) #28-Marcus Ericsson / 0 laps / crash
32) #30-Pietro Fittipaldi / 0 laps / crash
31) #66-Tom Blomqvist / 0 laps / crash
30) #11-Marcus Armstrong / 6 laps / engine
29) #51-Katherine Legge / 22 laps / engine
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) A.J. Foyt Racing, Andretti Global, Ed Carpenter Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Team Penske (1)
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (3)
2nd) Honda (2)
2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
