IndyCar
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson wins the 106th Indianapolis 500 and Tony Kanaan finishes third
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson drove flat out after a restart following a red flag to win Sunday’s 106th running of The Indianapolis 500.
Ericsson was driving away from Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward in the final laps when Ericsson’s teammate Jimmie Johnson spun and wrecked in Turn 2 bringing out the caution. NTT INDYCAR SERIES officials made the decision to red flag the event to insure a green flag finish.
“We had it covered,” said Ericsson. “The only thing that could stop us was a caution, and of course that caution came. Those were the longest 10-minutes of my life sitting in the car waiting for the restart. It’s not supposed to be easy to win the 500. Those 10 minutes sitting there in the pit lane during that red flag was some of the hardest 10 minutes of my life probably, thinking what to do, thinking that I’m leading the biggest race in the world, and I’m that close to win it.”
When the green flag dropped the O’Ward got a run on Ericsson going into Turn 1 but the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda driver put his foot down and drove the most epic laps of his career.
“Pato had a really good run on me,” explained. “I wanted to put him on the outside because I knew it was going to be hard to go around my outside. I was not going to lift. There was no way I was going to lift. I just kept my foot down and that was the race-winning move.”
“I knew I had to go for it,” said O’Ward. “I got up beside Marcus but just couldn’t make the pass. It’s so frustrating.”
Once Ericsson was out front he deftly maneuvered his car back on forth on the long straightaways to break the draft O’Ward was hoping to use to gain enough momentum to make a potential winning pass. Ericsson’s margin of victory was 1.7929-seconds ahead of O’Ward.
“I was actually sitting during dinner here at the Speedway on infield last night talking with Dario (Franchitti) about this type of scenario, if I’m leading when it’s towards the end of the race the last couple laps, what to do, how to break the tow of the car behind, how to place the car,” said Ericsson. “We had that very conversation last night. That was in my mind when I was sitting there during that red flag.”
Ericsson’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Tony Kanaan, who was closing on O’Ward before the red flag, finished third in the No. 1 American Legion Honda.
“A great month!,” said Kanaan. “I can’t thank the American Legion enough. What a great cause? The ‘Be The One’ campaign. I can’t thank the team enough.”
Kanaan says he would like to back at the 500 and has a year to try to get back but the day however belonged to Ericsson, who notched his first oval win, third career win and kind of flew under the radar a bit all month.
“When you have Scott (Dixon) and Alex (Palou) is the defending champion and JJ and TK on your team, I get it,” said Ericsson.
Team owner Chip Ganassi offered a different assessment.
Marcus’ sponsor (Huski Chocolate) in not in the U.S. so he doesn’t get the PR push from the sponsor like the guys do from PNC, NTT, Carvana and the American Legion,” said Ganassi.
Ericsson heads to the Detroit Grand Prix after grabbing the points lead with the victory.
“We’ve won the 500, now we have to go out and win the Championship,” said Ganassi.
NASHVILLE, TN (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Scott Dixon is sitting second in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Championship standings after winning Sunday’s Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville.
“It was a wild day,” said Dixon. “We had a good start. I thought things were going well, and then we came in for the first stop, and the air jacks failed or the hose failed. We went all the way to the back and got into the chaos in turn five or six and just got rolled over the back and hit pretty hard.”
Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank crew assessed the damage and the 6-time Series Champion made four pit stops to fix the wounded machine.
“Actually, we couldn’t get the wheel off because it was stuck on the brake caliper,” explained Dixon. “Took the team a lot of time to get that off, but then it ripped a bunch of the underfloor off of the car as well and all the strakes.”
Dixon returned to the fight and inherited the lead when Josef Newgarden hit pit road for fuel and held off Scott McLaughlin following a restart with 2-laps to go to pick up his second win of the year and 53rd of Dixon’s career, which gives him sole position of second-place on the All-time INDYCAR wins list. A.J. Foyt is the All-Time leader with 67 wins.
Dixon and the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda started 15th in the field and picked up a number of spots at the start of the race and settled into top 10 as McLaughlin, who started on the pole, took control out front early.
McLaughlin led 22-laps but dropped into the middle of the field in the middle part of the race.
“We had a fast car,” said McLaughlin. “I was in control early in the race and I knew early in the race I had a car that could pass. We had one costly pit-stop that put me back to 16th. I was pissed off and dropped the hammer.”
McLaughlin however couldn’t get Dixon on the final restart.
“I probably played it a little safe,” said McLaughlin. “The opportunity was there a couple of times but we both would’ve ended up in the fence if I would’ve taken it. To go toe-to-toe with Scotty was phenomenal and a very cool thing for my racing career.”
Dixon knew he had to get a good restart because his car was battered and bruised.
“The car was bent and broken, but for us I think strategy-wise to take no tires on that last stop was probably the key,” said Dixon. “We were able to jump a couple and have enough fuel to get towards the end, and to the end, but it was very difficult to drive. The car just had no grip. Each time we had a restart, I was just praying for another accident. Some of those came. Some of them didn’t. Another lap with McLaughlin would have been extremely tough to hold him off. He was just super fast, and I think just in a better situation.”
Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou, the defending Series Champion, finished third after leading the second portion of the race.
“I think Nashville is kind of like the Indy 500 where there are so many things happening, and you just need to survive and have a good car and a car in one piece at the end,” said Palou.
The win leaves Dixon six-points behind leader Will Power in the Championship standings. Palou’s third place finish leaves him 33-points out of the lead with three races to go.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES event is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Saturday, Aug. 20 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Live coverage on the USA Network and the INDYCAR Radio Network of the last oval race of the season starts at 6 p.m. ET.
NEWTON, IA (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Pato O’Ward won race two of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES doubleheader at Iowa Speedway, beating Team Penske’s Will Power by 4.2476-seconds.
O’Ward was in the position after Penske’s Josef Newgarden crashed after leading 148 of the first 234-laps.
“I knew we had the pace to win one,” said O’Ward. “The problem was just trying to get up to Josef. One thing is getting up to him, and one thing is passing him. I’m glad he’s okay. We took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself. I just walked away with it. I knew we had the pace to do it.”
“Man, I want to cry,” said Newgarden. “So sad for my team. I don’t know what happened. It was a good run. I feel terrible for us. I don’t know; something went wrong there.”
Newgarden was treated and released at the infield care center but later collapsed in the Motorhome lot and hit his head. He was admitted overnight in Iowa for observation before being released the following day. Newgarden’s status for Saturday’s race on the road course at Indianapolis is pending INDYCAR Medical Team clearance.
Newgarden’s Penske teammates Will Power finished second followed by Scott McLaughlin in third.
“The car was really good,” said Power. “I probably could have been more aggressive in that second-to-last stint because it seemed like there’s a lot less deg. Must have cooled or the track took a lot of rubber or something. The track was really fast.”
“Midway through the race today, the car was a bit of a handful and I wasn’t too happy,” said McLaughlin. “Managed to get my head down, did some really good pit exchanges, managed to get ourselves into P4 there before the last caution. Then P3 on Dixon, which was a fun pass. I really enjoyed that. It was a really good exchange with him all race.”
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES Race is the Gallagher Grand Prix on Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the INDYCAR/NASCAR Doubleheader weekend.
(Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden picked up his fourth win of the season taking race one of the HyVee Doubleheader NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at Iowa Speedway.
Newgarden beat Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward by 6.1784 seconds en route to his 24th career victory.
“I love this place,” said Newgarden. “I mean, not just because we’re good here. Obviously that makes it better, but it’s a really fun track to race at. You have two lanes to run on, sometimes three. That’s abnormal for us in a lot of ovals we go to. It’s the most exciting race we get to partake in in INDYCAR from an oval standpoint.”
“I thought we had a little bit more for Josef in the end,” said O’Ward. “He was really strong. I had to use my tires a bit much. I think Will was on the same train battling with me and Palou, Marcus. So, I think we used up our tires a little bit more than what Josef did. He had a little bit more to give in the end.”
Power, the race’s pole-sitter, finished third.
“Last restart is what hurt me the most, trying to keep guys behind,” said Power. “Had a couple of big yaw moments on the rear tire early. Pounded on that rear too much to stay ahead. Then went loose, really loose. I had some big saves. I was happy to end up third actually.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay finished fourth in the No. 21 Bitcoin Racing Team with BitNile Chevrolet, his second top-four finish in his last three starts. Six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Scott Dixon followed his victory last Sunday at the Honda Indy Toronto by finishing fifth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“It was a tough day,” said Dixon. “Our car was really good on the long run. We’ve got a lot of work to do tonight to get our cars better.”
Race 2 of the Doubleheader is Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
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