Tale of Two Swedes: Ericsson Takes First Win in Detroit

A wild and chaotic day in Detroit came to a close as Marcus Ericsson picked up his first IndyCar win, and Will Power lost out on a huge win for Penske. The young phenoms Veekay and O’Ward filled out the podium, and Takuma Sato slipped back to fourth. His teammates Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci finished right behind him, then Rossi, Dixon, Jones, and Newgarden. With two red flags, strategy was disrupted twice, sending Dixon and Herta back in the pack. The first red flag was brought out by Felix Rosenqvist, who had a stuck throttle on lap 25, sending him flying into the tire barrier in a violent crash. The race was red flagged to rebuild the barrier, and Rosenqvist was taken to the hospital for observation. IndyCar medical officer Dr. Geoffrey Billows said that Rosenqvist had no serious injuries, but Arrow McLaren SP announced that Oliver Askew would drive for Rosenqvist in Sunday’s race. After a one hour red flag, the race restarted, with strategy reset due to every driver needing one more stop. The second red flag was caused by Romain Grosjean, and resulted in a major shakeup in the race.

The race started with a strategy play, as almost every driver on the red alternate tire pitted within the first five laps, attempting to shorten the stint on the quickly degrading tires. Josef Newgarden suffered an incident on lap 5, as he smacked the wall, losing a tire as he rolled around to the pits. Hunter-Reay suffered a similar hit the next lap, then Johnson lost power on lap 11. Despite these minor incidents, the race stayed green, as strategy took Will Power to the lead briefly, then Dixon on the longer-lasting primary tires took the lead. Rosenqvist’s crash brought out the red flag at the very end of the fuel run, something that happened in the Indy 500 to Dixon, causing him to be off-cycle for the rest of the race. Herta was caught back in 18th, and Hinchcliffe ended up having to perform emergency service, getting a penalty. 

The race restarted with Power and Ericsson leading the field, and they stayed up there the rest of the race. As strategy played out, two on track penalties were issued, with Sato told to give P3 back to Veekay, and Herta given a penalty for avoidable contact on Jack Harvey. No cautions or major incidents occurred, and Power seemed set to take his first win of the season, and Penske’s first win as well, but a red flag from Grosjean smacking the wall. With five laps to go, IndyCar threw the red flag, intending to have the race finish under green. However, as the field filtered onto pit road, the leader Will Power began to call for a fan to cool the car, specifically the ECU, but due to Indycar rules, until all cars were in the cars could not be touched. As the race restarted, Power was unable to start his car, and the field passed him by. Ericsson assumed the lead and never gave it up, as Veekay and O’Ward battled furiously behind him, battling worn tires and severe oversteer, as Ericsson cruised to his first Indycar win. 

Speaking after the race to NBC, Power said, “I’m mad at Indycar…the guys up there, in race control, never listen to any drivers, they never listen, they don’t care. I worked my a** today, to have this happen. I’m screaming on the radio, get a fan…because the ECU always overheats.” Power was nearly quickest in qualifying, and had the race almost sewn up, but he will have another shot tomorrow, and he will doubtless be very motivated. Indycar goes live on NBC Sunday, at 12:00 pm EDT.