DETROIT — Marcus Ericsson and his Andretti Global No. 28 team endured a challenging month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Crashing during practice, Ericsson, the 2022 Indy 500 winner, qualified in the last row in a backup car and was eliminated from the race in a crash on the first lap.
Ericsson and his teammates got the rebound they needed Sunday as the NTT IndyCar Series season resumed with the Detroit Grand Prix.
Ericsson raced his Honda-powered machine through the field to finish second on the tight, challenging street circuit. It was much needed medicine for Ericsson.
“That month of May was draining because we had to work so hard and we got so little,” Ericsson said. “I think the whole 28 group has come together well going into this weekend. We all talked together and said let’s reset, press that big red button, reset, get our 2024 2.0 going. That was the mindset coming into this weekend.
“We had some issues in practice, but the car felt great all sessions really. Qualifying was decent. Today we showed in the race that we had the pace to fight up front all day.
Really, really proud of the team. It was not an easy race. Everyone did good decisions. Well-deserved to be on the podium.”
Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix was a wild affair, and Ericsson was critical of the slam-bang action on the race track.
“I think people are driving reckless on the restarts. Obviously, opportunities on restarts. I don’t know if we need to look at how we steward these kind of races,” Ericsson said. “I think today more than 50 percent on yellow. I’m sure it was dramatic and fun to watch. At some point also we need to have a bit of a better standard. We’re one of the best racing series in the world. We shouldn’t be driving on top of each other every single restart.
Obviously, I haven’t seen the race, I was just driving it,” he added. “I saw in my mirrors every time on the restart, four, five-wide. I was just praying not to get hit pretty much every restart.”