DARK HORSE EMERGES
Now, out of the pack came Ericsson, hot Ganassi pit work lifting him to third and the Swede then going to work to demote countryman Felix Rosenqvist and firebrand Mexican Pato O’Ward, teammates at Arrow McLaren SP, sister squad to the F1 team. In those moments Ericsson found underneath him what every racing driver desires: a fully hooked-up racing car powered by a potent Honda engine that just had the legs on McLaren’s Chevrolets. He stretched away and his family’s excitement behind the pitwall began to spill into celebration.
But wait: this is the biggest race in the world. Victory doesn’t come that easy.
A STING IN THE TAIL
On lap 194, just six from home, Ganassi’s own Jimmie Johnson lost control and slammed hard into the wall.
The seven-time NASCAR champion had just created Ericsson’s idea of hell. Determined to finish the event under racing conditions, Indy’s officials did what Michael Masi failed to do in Abu Dhabi last year and threw a red flag.
Victory had been almost in touching distance; now Ericsson trundled down the pit road for the longest 10 minutes of his life, his advantage gone and facing the prospect of a frenzied restart with O’Ward, Rosenqvist and another Ganassi hero, 2013 winner Tony Kanaan, breathing down his neck.
Ericsson was fuming – but after calming words from wise old heads on the pitwall, he refocused and prepared himself for what would be a two-lap dash for glory. O’Ward, at 23, is IndyCar’s most exciting young talent and perhaps destined for a McLaren F1 seat – maybe sooner rather than later if Daniel Ricciardo doesn’t pull his act together.
But before F1, O’Ward is desperate to win Indy and at the restart gave it everything. Ericsson weaved violently down the long straights in his attempt to break the tow, for a second looking destined to smash into the end of the pitwall. Still O’Ward came, edging alongside on the way to Turn 1 – only to back out.
On the outside line, he knew Ericsson, intentionally or otherwise, would have edged him into the wall. The race was over even before Sage Karam crashed in the final seconds, meaning the race finished under caution anyway. Ericsson shot across the yard of bricks – the last vestige of Indy’s original track surface laid for the first 500 in 1911 – to begin his new life as an Indy winner.