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2022 Indianapolis 500 results: Marcus Ericsson fights off late charge to win Indy 500 under dramatic caution

Pato O'Ward set up a completely exhilarating late test in a two-lap shootout toward the finish of the race

2022 Indianapolis 500 results: Marcus Ericsson fights off late charge to win Indy 500 under dramatic caution


Scott Dixon began the 106th Indianapolis 500 in ruling design for Chip Ganassi Dashing, yet it was Marcus Ericsson who completed it that way, pulling away from a charging Bolt McLaren SP vehicle driven by Pato O'Ward over the last two laps to win a two-lap shootout at the renowned Brickyard.


It was a fifth Indy 500 win for Chip Ganassi's group - - CGR's first starting around 2012 - - and it shuts May for them as they had begun it - - on the list of competitors.


Ericsson was wearing a cap painted to pay tribute to his late kinsman and F1 legend, Ronnie Peterson, who was known as the "Super Swede." Individuals around the IndyCar enclosure and somewhere else have taken to calling Ericsson by another moniker: the "Subtle Swede." In his two past successes on the IndyCar circuit - - Beauty Isle at Detroit and Nashville, both in 2021 - - the 31-year-old apparently appeared unexpectedly to win. He didn't appear suddenly at Indy, having begun fifth. He additionally figured out how to remain generally safe and consistently appeared to be in the main five someplace.


That probably would have been where he got done notwithstanding a late blunder by his partner, Dixon. The Kiwi had been ruling all along, imparting the lead to GCR colleague Alex Palou in the primary portion of the race as the methodology was for them to attempt to save fuel by letting one lead and the other draft, then changing that request around after a couple of laps or so as it became obvious that the Honda engined controlling the GCR vehicles were not getting a similar eco-friendliness as the Chevrolet-controlled vehicles of Pato O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist.


The GCR misfortune initially struck Palou, who was going to make his subsequent green banner refueling break when Callum Ilott struck the wall and drew out a watchfulness. Besides the fact that the Spaniard stood out on the track, he was so down on fuel that he needed to make a stop just to take a sprinkle while the pits were as yet shut, which was welcomed as a punishment. His race was successfully finished.


At 24 laps remaining, Dixon pulled in for his last refueling break and committed his main error on the day: He was going excessively quick. He secured his wheels, causing a puff of smoke, however, it was past the point of no return, and race control flagged his group that Dixon had surpassed as far as possible down the pit path and would need to come around and serve an unpredictable punishment after reemerging the track.


"I came into the pit and needed to lock the backs and sort of locked every one of the four," said Dixon told IndyCar.com a while later. "I think it was a mile-an-hour over or something to that effect. Simply disappointing. I just screwed up."


That tad of misfortune for GCR seemed to be the very break Bolt McLaren SP required, as though that last arrangement of stops O'Ward had cycled to the front and was presently behind Ericsson, who had pitted only a couple of laps prior. The laps clicked off individually, and it seemed as though Ericsson planned to effortlessly drive away from O'Ward when one more mindfulness came out right within 10 laps to go when Jimmie Johnson, in the fifth GCR vehicle, struck the wall hard.


"I could barely handle it," Ericsson expressed later in Triumph Path. "I was asking so hard there would not have been another yellow."


With the race approaching the completion, race control chose not exclusively to toss a yellow yet in addition a red, and Ericsson drove the field into the pit path with his colossal lead gone.


At the point when they arose, it was once around to heat up the tires, some other opportunity around to arrive up to speed, and afterward a two-lap shootout to the checkered banner.


"It was difficult to pull together," said Ericsson, whose mirrors were brimming with not exclusively O'Ward's vehicle yet Tony Kanaan's and Felix Rosenqvist's also.


O'Ward attempted the external line however he simply didn't exactly have to the point of moving beyond. Through Turn 2 and to the back straight, O'Ward eased off only a tad and Ericsson fueled away, with Kanaan and Rosenqvist behind, and the field was secured in those spots when Sage Karam caromed crazy leaving Go 2 to draw out the last wariness.


"He [Ericsson] planned to place me in the wall if I would have taken the plunge," O'Ward said. "I'm so glad, however, it [finishing second] certainly smells."


Ericsson was standing out amiss 4 when the yellow banner waved and was at long last ready to breathe out as he thundered across the beginning/finish line to turn into the second Swede to win the Indianapolis 500 after Kenny Brack (1999).


"I needed to do everything there toward the finish to keep him behind," Ericsson said after drinking the conventional milk granted the champ at the race's end. "I can barely handle it. I'm so cheerful."


2022 Indy 500 top 10

  • Marcus Ericsson
  • Pato O'Ward
  • Tony Kanaan
  • Felix Rosenqvist
  • Alexander Rossi
  • Conor Daly
  • Helio Castroneves
  • Simon Pagenaud
  • Alex Palou
  • Santino Ferruccio

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