The 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 Sunday was taken by the Swede, Marcus Ericsson. It was his first victory on the world’s most famous track and the first Indy win since 2012 for Chip Ganassi Racing.
As heard on WRBI, Ericcson had a sizeable, three-second lead until his teammate, Jimmy Johnson, crashed in Turn 2 on lap 194.
Officials red flagged the race in hopes it would finish under green. However, Ericcson won under caution when another Turn 2 crash involving Sage Karam occurred on the final lap. Ericcson was locked in a battle with Pato O’Ward during the final two laps following the red flag restart.
One other Swede, Kenny Brack, won “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in 1999.
Rounding out the top five from Sunday were Tony Kannan (third), Felix Rosenqvist (fourth) and Alexander Rossi (fifth).
Pole sitter Scott Dixon had a major piece of misfortune with 23 laps to go. While leading, Dixon was charged with a pit lane speeding penalty during his final pit stop. Having to do a “pass through” penalty run, Dixon lost several spots and initially went a lap down. He did finsh on the lead lap but placed 21st.
The six-time IndyCar champion led 95 laps, the most by any driver in this year’s race, and also broke the all-time record of 644 laps led at Indy in a career by Al Unser Jr.