Marcus Ericsson had a good day for a pay driver. Formula One must be allergic to rain. Ferrari is dropping the ball. MotoGP's Finnish returned has been delayed yet another year. Marc Márquez will have surgery and miss some time. Goodyear tire issues forced the cancellation of the World Touring Car Cup races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. There was Vanthoor-on-Vanthoor violence. The Coca-Cola 600 went long in more ways than one. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
106th Indianapolis 500 Dissection
Another Indianapolis 500 is behind us, a lot happened, let's pick apart the 106th edition of this race and Marcus Ericsson's victory.
Ericsson is now the 74th driver to win the Indianapolis 500. His victory ended Chip Ganassi Racing's ten-year Indianapolis 500 drought and Ericsson is the four driver to win the Indianapolis 500 for Ganassi joining Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.
With Ericsson's victory, Sweden has now won the Indianapolis 500 twice. Sweden is the eighth country to have multiple Indianapolis 500 victories and it is only the fifth country to have multiple drivers win a race joining the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and France.
Ericsson's average running position in this race was 4.575. He spent 145 laps in the top five and 196 laps in the top ten. The first time Ericsson fell out of the top ten was on lap 178 after his final pit stop. He dropped to 13th, ran 13th for three laps, was 11th for a lap and was back into the top ten on lap 182.
Ericsson won the Indianapolis 500 and scored fastest lap in the race. This is the first time the Indianapolis 500 had fastest lap since Alexander Rossi in 2019, but prior to Rossi it had not be done since Emerson Fittipaldi in 1993. Since 1950, only 13 Indianapolis 500 winners had the fastest lap of the race.
Ericsson is the 13th consecutive different driver to have fastest lap in the Indianapolis 500 and he is the first European driver to have fastest lap since Justin Wilson in 2013.
Ericsson won from fifth on the grid, the first time the Indianapolis 500 winner has started fifth since Buddy Lazier in 1996.
This was the fourth Indianapolis 500 victory for car #8. The others were Joe Dawson in 1912, Louis Meyer in 1936 and Pat Flaherty in 1956.
An even-numbered car has won nine consecutive Indianapolis 500s. Prior to this stretch, the longest run for even-numbered cars was five races on two separate occasions, 1911 to 1915 and 1952 to 1956. The longest winning streak for odd-numbered cars is five races on two separate occasions, 1947 to 1951 and 1994 to 1998.
This was the fifth different nationality to win the Indianapolis 500 in the last five years. There has never been a stretch of six consecutive different nationalities winning the Indianapolis 500. This is the third stretch of five consecutive different nationalities winning the race after 1997-2001 and 2015-2019.
Ericsson led only 13 laps on his way to victory, the fewest laps led for an Indianapolis 500 winner since Juan Pablo Montoya only led nine laps in 2015.
Ericsson is the seventh driver to win the Indianapolis 500 when 31 years old, but he is the first to do it since Al Unser in 1970.
This was Honda's third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory. This is the first time since engine competition returned in IndyCar in 2012 that a manufacture has won three consecutive Indianapolis 500s. This was Honda's 15th Indianapolis 500 victory overall, now 12 behind Offenhauser's record and four clear of Chevrolet, which is fourth all-time behind Miller's 12 victories.
Ericsson's victory gave him the IndyCar championship lead. It is the first time a Swede has led an IndyCar championship since Kenny Bräck led after the September 22, 2001 CART round at Rockingham Motor Speedway in England. Gil de Ferran won that race after memorable battle with Bräck that saw de Ferran take the lead on the final lap. Cristiano da Matta was third. Other notable finishers in that 2001 Rockingham race were Hélio Castroneves in fourth, Tony Kanaan in eighth and Scott Dixon in 22nd. Oh, and Bräck drove the #8 car at that time for Team Rahal.
Ericsson is the 23rd Indianapolis 500 winner to have started a Formula One race prior to an Indianapolis 500 victory. Ten of those 23 winners were drivers who started the Indianapolis 500 from between 1950-1960 when Indianapolis counted toward the world championship. Excluding those ten drivers, only Emerson Fittipaldi and Eddie Cheever had made more Formula One starts than Ericsson at the time of their Indianapolis 500 victories. Hell, even if we included those ten drivers, Ericsson would still be the third most experienced Formula One driver at the time of an Indianapolis 500 victory.
Rookies aside, here is a list of drivers that scored their personal best Indianapolis 500 finish this year:
Marcus Ericsson (1st)
Patricio O'Ward (2nd)
Felix Rosenqvist (4th)
Conor Daly (6th)
It was the first top ten finish in the Indianapolis 500 for both Ericsson and Rosenqvist.
Scott Dixon is now the all-time leader in Indianapolis 500 laps led. Dixon has led 665 laps in 20 Indianapolis 500 starts. This was the sixth time Dixon has led the most laps in the Indianapolis 500, extending the record he set in 2019.
However, this was the tenth time in the last 12 years the driver that led the most laps did not win the Indianapolis 500.
With Dixon and Tony Kanaan each leading laps in this race, they each remain tied for most Indianapolis 500s led, each having led in 15 Indianapolis 500s.
With his 47 laps led in this year's race, Álex Palou is now 75th all-time in laps led on 82, three behind Takuma Sato and five more than Alexander Rossi. Ninety-nine drivers have now led at least 50 laps in the Indianapolis 500.
This was the first time Ericsson has led in the Indianapolis 500 and his 13 laps led are tied for 157th all-time with Russ Snowberger, Josele Garza, Billy Boat, Justin Wilson, Townsend Bell and J.R. Hildebrand.
The only other driver to get his first career laps led in the Indianapolis 500 was Jimmie Johnson, who led two laps. Johnson is the fifth driver to have laps led in the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 joining Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, John Andretti and Robby Gordon.
For those of you wondering at home, Johnson's average running position over his 193 laps was 21.326. He entered the top ten for the first time on lap 145 during a pit cycle and was seventh for two laps. Then he ran 13 laps in the top ten from lap 177 through lap 189 and was in the top five for the final eight laps of that run.
Funny enough, Johnson spent more laps in the top five than Kurt Busch did in Busch's lone Indianapolis 500 start in 2014. Busch spent zero laps in the top five in that race and finished sixth! Busch's average running position in 2014 was 14.34.
This year's race had an average speed of 175.428 mph, the seventh time the race has averaged faster than 175 mph. Five of those seven races have occurred in the last ten years.
There were 38 lead changes in this year's race, the third most in Indianapolis 500 history behind only the 68 that occurred in 2013 and the 54 that happened in 2016.
However, there was a slight dip in the passing statistics. There were 423 total passes, 338 for position in this year's race, down from 465 and 361 in those respective categories. This year's 423 total passes was the fewest in the Indianapolis 500 since the introduction of the universal aero kits and the only race with fewer passes for position was 2019 when there were only 323 passes for position.
Strangely enough, the Indianapolis 500 with the most passes since the introduction of the universal aero kit was 2018, the first one with this kit, when there were 633 total passes, 428 of which were for position. And everybody hated that 2018 race!
Hélio Castroneves was seventh in this year's race, his tenth top ten finish in the Indianapolis 500. The only other drivers with at least ten top ten finishes in the Indianapolis 500 are Al Unser and A.J. Foyt.
There were six different teams represented in the top ten of the Indianapolis 500: Chip Ganassi Racing, Arrow McLaren SP, Andretti Autosport, Ed Carpenter Racing, Meyer Shank Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
While seven teams were in the top ten, Team Penske was not, the first time Penske did not have a top ten finisher at Indianapolis since 2011. The team also didn't lead a lap, the first time the team hasn't led since 2011 as well.
Due to Sage Karam's accident on the final lap in turn two, this was the second Indianapolis 500 in three years to finish under caution. Excluding rain-shortened races, this is the 11th time the Indianapolis 500 has finished under caution, but this is the fifth time the caution came on the final lap of the race.
Rinus VeeKay led a lap, lap 31 to be specific, but on lap 39, VeeKay had an accident in turn two and was the first retirement of the race. When was the last time the last-place finisher in the Indianapolis 500 led a lap? It was 2000 when Greg Ray led the first 26 laps from pole position and then was the first car out after an accident on lap 66 in turn two.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Marcus Ericsson, but did you know...
Sergio Pérez won the Monaco Grand Prix.
Francesco Bagnaia won MotoGP's Italian Grand Prix, his second victory of the season. Pedro Acosta won the Moto2 race. Sergio García won the Moto3 race after Izan Guevara was docked a position for exceeding track limits on the final lap. Dominique Aegerter and Matteo Ferrari split the MotoE races.
Denny Hamlin won the Coca-Cola 600, his second victory of the season. Josh Berry won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season. Ross Chastain won the Truck race.
The #15 Phoenix Racing of Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanhtoor, Frédéric Vervisch and Robin Frijns won the 24 Hours Nürburging.
The #3 NDDP Racing Nissan of Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi won the Super GT race from Suzuka. The #7 BMW Team Studie x CSL BMW of Seiji Ara and Tsubasa Kondo won in GT300.
Dennis Hauger and Felipe Drugovich split the Formula Two races from Monaco.
Louis Foster won the Indy Pro 2000 race at Indianapolis Raceway Park, his second victory of the season. Michael d'Orlando won the U.S. F2000 race.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar and IMSA make a final visit to Belle Isle, only one race for each.
The NASCAR Cup Series makes its first visit to Gateway.
MotoGP will be in Barcelona.
Formula E makes its first visit to Jakarta.
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup has a 1000-kilometer race at Circuit Paul Ricard.
The World Rally Championship will be in Sardinia.
