MARKHAM, Ontario — In a race that featured chaos and at times, insanity, Marcus Ericsson kept a cool head while driving with fierce aggression to win Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy At Markham.
It was Ericsson’s first win since March 5, 2023, when the driver from Sweden won the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
He hunted down race leader Romain Grosjean and made the race winning pass with five laps to go. It was Ericsson’s first win with Andretti Global after he signed a contract extension to return with the team two weeks ago.
Ericsson defeated Grosjean by 7.5305 seconds. Andretti Global driver Will Power finished third to give the team two drivers on the podium.
“When the one yellow came out, I was quite worried because we needed a long gap to get the pace that we needed,” said Andretti Global strategist Zack Porter.
Ericsson found that pace and it provided him the path to victory lane in the inaugural street race at Markham, Ontario.
It was Ericsson’s fifth win in the NTT IndyCar Series and his fourth on a street course. He is also the winner of the 2022 Indianapolis 500.
Ericsson was the fastest and most aggressive driver on the track to win for the first time in the last 63 starts.
“It’s been long enough,” Ericsson said. “But we worked so hard on this Andretti Global crew. It was fantastic. It doesn’t come as a surprise. We’ve had such a good year and have gotten stronger and stronger every weekend. We may not have gotten the results we should have, and we had to work for it today.
“We were the fastest car all day and there were a lot of yellows. We had to stay out, and I wanted to show the pace and open that gap in the back of the field. We were lapping so quick and a lot of work to get to the leaders. I hate that we touched Will Power, but we had to get to the front.”
Grosjean nearly took Dale Coyne Racing to the win but had his sixth second-place finish in his IndyCar career.
“It’s been a tough season, and we opened a gap, but the 28 came,” Grosjean said. “I thought today was the day, but we move on to the next one,” Grosjean said.
Will Power started last in the 25-car field and finished third.
“I didn’t realize Marcus was going to go for it in the hairpin,” Power said. “It was a great day, very good on restarts. It was very solid. I was wondering what might happen today. I was mad at myself for what happened on Saturday. The team had to rebuild the car and do an engine change and many of them only had two hours of sleep. I’m glad I can repay them with something.
“Pretty cool race.”
Alex Palou started 11th and finished fourth. His lead in the NTT IndyCar Series championship increased from 110 point to 133 over Kyle Kirkwood and 137 over David Malukas. Kirkwood was involved in a big crash and finished 21st.
With a full grandstand of spectators, and fans linking the general admission area, they were prepared to witness a brand-new event on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule. Speeds began to build on the pace lap as the top 15 drivers starting on the Firestone Red tire with the exception of third-place starter Scott McLaughlin, who chose the Firestone Blacks.
The pace car pulled off onto pit road and the field made it around to the alternate starting position out of Turn 6 entering the long backstraight to begin the race.
Foster got a great lead at the start as the field weaved through the tight Turn 7. Caio Cai appeared to have a tire issue at the start and had to drive into the pits for a very early pit stop to replace the flat tire.
Kyle Kirkwood, who had to take a six grid-position penalty for using up his season allotment of five engines, had already made up seven positions in the first three laps. He started 23rd and was up to 17th.
Foster continued to lead Lundgaard early as the race settle into a single-file pace, a wise move by most of the field to get a good read on the new street course.
Mick Shumacher, who was up to eighth place, crashed in Turn 4 on Lap 14 for the first caution of the race. After the No. 47 Honda was removed from the race course, it was back to green flag race on Lap 19 with Foster leading McLaughlin, Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, who had started 11th.
Hauger lost 17 places in the two laps after the restart as he slid into the marbles and was unable to get back in the preferred racing line, falling through the field like a boat anchor.
David Malukas of Team Penske was extremely frustrated on the radio to his crew as he continued to have brake bias issues that have plagued the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet all weekend. On Lap 21, he drove into the pits for four tires and fuel.
Felix Rosenqvist dropped out of the race with fuel pressure issues on Lap 20.
Will Power, who started 25th, had raced his way to ninth position on Lap 24.
Palou pitted on Lap 26. Foster continued to lead McLaughlin and Ericsson. McLaughlin pitted from second place on Lap 28.
Ericsson pitted on Lap 31 as Foster continued to stay on course. On Lap 32, Marcus Armstrong got knocked off course in the hairpin and spun a second time, stalling the car and bringing out the full course caution of the race. Because Foster had not pitted, his strategy was ruined because he would move behind the cars that already pitted once the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver made his pit stop.
With Armstrong stalling on course, his engine was refired by the AMR Safety Crew but did not follow instruction from the crew and returned to the track before coming to a stop. That created a massive traffic jam involving many drivers, including McLaughlin.
Armstrong received a stop and hold penalty for failure to follow instructions from the safety crew.
When the pits opened on Lap 34, Foster came down pit lane for his stop, moving him all the way down to 12th.
As the field lineup up for a restart on Lap 36, Nolan Siegel was the leader ahead of Romain Grosjean, Ericsson and Sting Ray Robb. Siegel got a good start and gapped Grosjean.
Scott Dixon and Christian Rasmussen crashed going through Turn 8 after Dixon’s No. 9 PNC bank Honda was tipped by Hauger’s Honda. Dixon was able to get his car in the right direction, but Rasmussen’s car was out of the race, and he climbed into the AMR Safety Vehicle for a ride back to the paddock.
Dixon’s Honda was in pit lane as his Chip Ganassi Racing crew tended to the rear of the car with a broken toe link.
The biggest mover in the race up to that point was Power, who was running in fifth after starting 25th.
Racing resumed on Lap 41 and Grosjean took the lead when he passed Siegel through the hairpin. Foster passed Palou for position and moved up was the leader ahead of Siegel. Chaos followed with cars bouncing off each other at speed, including Palou, who lost five positions since the restart and out of the top 10.
But the biggest incident of the race came on Lap 45 when Foster passed Ericsson for third place, overcooked his tires, pinged into the inside wall, then slammed hard, nose-first, into the wall outside wall in Turn 3 in a massive impact.
“I’ll survive. I’ll be all right,” Foster said. “Just frustrating. We were so fast. I put a move on Marcus and thought I left enough room to the wall and went halfway around, but because we don’t have these radius walls here, we just catch the edges. Us drivers complain about these walls for this reason.”
During the caution, Siegel pitted and Grosjean was in the lead ahead of Ericsson.
As the field lined up to restart the race on Lap 51, Grosjean led a trio of Andretti Global drivers including, in order, Ericsson, Power and Kirkwood.
When the green waved, Grosjean hit the throttle and led Ericsson through Turns 1, 2 and 3. There was even more contact through the field in the hairpin as it began to live up to the prediction of chaos for this 12-turn, 2.19-mile street course.
Grosjean was called into the pits on Lap 54, and Dale Coyne Racing put on a set of stick Red tires.
Kirkwood, who was running third in the Turn 3 wall, damaging the entire front of his No. 27 Honda in the same type of crash that Foster had earlier.
“That one is on me,” Kirkwood said. “The car was fast. We had so many things thrown at us from the start of the race to the middle of the race. I just turned in, though I had cleared the wall, but with radius, this wall has like Gator Teeth, and I clipped one of those.
“Hopefully, one of my teammates wins this race and we can go to Washington, DC next week with our heads held high.”
Once pit lane opened and teams made pit stops while others stayed out, it jumbled the running order with 30 laps to go. Ericsson was the leader ahead of Grosjean, McLaughlin and Malukas.
The race resumed with 28 laps to go and no driver in the top five had won a race yet this season.
Ericsson pushed his No. 28 Honda and was one second faster than Grosjean but had yet to make his pit stop. Rinus VeeKay was up to fifth, continuing his great stretch during the races this summer.
Palou passed VeeKay for fifth.
Ericsson pitted as the leader with 21 laps to go and Grosjean was back in the lead ahead of McLaughlin. Ericsson’s crew put on a new set of Firestone Reds, the soft tire. Ericsson returned to the track in sixth place because the team did not do a full stop for fuel to save time.
Like a shark, Palou had moved up to third place and in position to fight for the win. Palou passed McLaughlin for second place on Lap 72 and began to pursue Grosjean.
With 13 laps to go, Power passed McLaughlin and Ericsson passed Malukas. That put Power in third and Ericsson in fifth.
With 10 to go, Grosjean led Palou by 2.489 seconds. But Power and Ericsson were both charging and catching up to Palou. But with nine laps to go, Ericsson and Power banged into each other in the hairpin and Ericsson took third place away from his Andretti Global teammate. It appeared that Power may have turned into Ericsson in the tight quarters area.
As Ericsson moved to the rear of Palou, it allowed Grosjean to build a lead. Ericsson passed Palou for second place in hairpin as the crowd went wild with that move.
With six laps to go, Ericsson had cut Grosjean’s lead to 1.001 seconds, sizing up the driver from France and waiting for the proper time to pounce. Power was able to drive past Palou to take over third.
Five laps to go and Ericsson was on the charge. He dove to the inside Grosjean and made the race-winning pass in a brilliant move with another loud cheer from the packed crowd at Markham.
Kyffin Simpson added a bit of tension when he spun in the hairpin but was able to keep the engine running without IndyCar ordering a caution.
Ericsson began to pull away and charge to his first victory in over three seasons.
