Race report
IndyCar Indy 500
Indy 500: Ericsson wins 106th edition after late red-flag drama
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson won the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 after a red flag for Jimmie Johnson’s late crash.
Charles Bradley
Edited: May 30, 2022, 10:37 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Johnson’s crash led to a two-lap shootout to decide the race, when Ericsson engaged some wild weaving moves to keep his rivals behind.
Teammate Scott Dixon led most laps, but a pitlane speeding penalty during his last stop ended his hopes. Ericsson overcame the Arrow McLaren SP cars of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist during the final stint, with Tony Kanaan separating them to grab third in the closing stages.
How the Indy 500 unfolded
At the green flag, pole-winner Dixon led the 33 cars to Turn 1 ahead of Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda) and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy). Palou grabbed the lead at Turn 3 on the opening lap and VeeKay further demoted Dixon at Turn 1 on Lap 2.
Dixon repassed VeeKay for second on Lap 5 and then retook the lead from Palou on Lap 8 – the teammates then swapping the top spot repeatedly to aid each other’s fuel mileage.
Another Ganassi entry, Marcus Ericsson, led the chase in fourth place from Ed Carpenter (ECR), Tony Kanaan (CGR) and the Arrow McLaren SP-Honda cars of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. Early movers in the pack were Josef Newgarden (Team Penske-Chevy) and Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport-Honda), both gaining five places in the opening stages, as Will Power (Team Penske) was an early faller as he complained of huge oversteer – his day getting worse as he stalled leaving the pits, dropping him to 30th.
Dixon made his first pitstop from the lead on Lap 31, with Palou in on Lap 32 and VeeKay on Lap 33. AMSP’s cars got great mileage in the pack and ran until Lap 36.
The first caution flew on Lap 39, as VeeKay crashed out of second place at Turn 2, losing control of the rear of his car just six laps into his second stint. “It just snapped on me,” he said.
Palou led the Lap 47 restart, with Takuma Sato (Dale Coyne-Honda) making a huge around-the-outside move to grab briefly sixth before Kanaan repassed him into Turn 3. O’Ward took third from Ericsson just before one quarter distance.
The second round of pitstops had just begun when Callum Ilott crashed his Juncos Hollinger car at Turn 2. Dixon and Conor Daly (ECR) had just made their stops but Palou was caught out by a closed pitlane and he had to drive straight through. He then had to take emergency service on the following tour, which dropped him to the tail of the field and then had to serve a penalty at the restart too.
Carpenter lost two spots in the second round of yellow flag pitstops, with O’Ward winning the race off pitroad and rejoining behind Dixon and the fortunate Daly, who had been propelled to second place thanks to his strategy.
At the Lap 78 restart, Daly and O’Ward had a near miss at Turn 1 as Ericsson and Kanaan battled over fourth. Ericsson then battled past O’Ward, who had to back out of the gas, for third.
Local hero Daly hit the front on Lap 81 to the delight of the crowd while, further back, the Meyer Shank-Hondas of Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves (who had a flapping helmet air hose since the early stages) worked their way inside the Top 15.
Dixon worked his way past Daly to lead again, while O’Ward repassed Ericsson for third.
At the halfway point, Dixon led Daly, O’Ward, Ericsson, Kanaan, Santino Ferrucci (Dreyer & Reinbold-Chevy), Carpenter, Newgarden, Rosenqvist and Sato.
O’Ward took second before Daly pitted on Lap 106 – and for the second time, a crash happened as Conor did so, as Romain Grosjean spun his Andretti Autosport-Honda into the wall exiting Turn 2.
The pits opened just in time to save Dixon, who didn’t stop on the same lap as Daly this time, and he would restart in second, behind Daly. Adding to Penske’s woe, Newgarden stalled in this round of stops, dropping him to 24th.
Daly was swamped on the Lap 113 restart, as O’Ward passed both Daly and Dixon to grab the lead, with Ferrucci sweeping up to fourth ahead of Rosenqvist, Kanaan, Ericsson and Carpenter. Daly and Ferrucci banged wheels into Turn 3 in a tussle for third, while Palou was now back inside the Top 20 after his earlier delay.
Dixon was soon back in front – picking up the mantle of the all-time Indy 500 lap leader from the late Al Unser Sr – with O’Ward and Daly content to run in his slipstream, as Rosenqvist demoted Ferrucci to fifth.
Dixon pitted under green on Lap 141, followed by a lap later by Daly. Rosenqvist stopped two laps later and stayed ahead until Dixon passed him at Turn 1 on Lap 145. O’Ward pitted later than all of them and cycled his way to the front, while Kanaan suffered a slow stop and lost ground to the leaders, losing a spot to Ericsson also.
O’Ward led by a second with 50 laps to go, but the yellow flew again soon after as Scott McLaughlin crashed his Team Penske-Chevy at Turn 3 and smashed the wall again at Turn 4.
With 43 laps to go, Dixon grabbed the lead from O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Daly and Ericsson. Rossi – who started 20th – was now sixth, busting moves ahead of Kanaan, Ferrucci, Pagenaud and Carpenter. Palou was 12th but banging wheels with Sage Karam.
O’Ward retook the lead but Dixon was clearly keen on staying out front. Rosenqvist stopped on Lap 173, followed in by Rossi a lap later. Dixon pitted for the final time on Lap 175, almost losing it under brakes at pit-in – and he pinged for speeding as a result. His penalty dropped him to 26th.
O’Ward rejoined from his last stop behind teammate Rosenqvist, and Ericsson further demoted O’Ward with a smart move in Turn 1. He then moved past fellow countryman Rosenqvist on the next tour and pulled away.
Rosenqvist fell back behind O’Ward and Kanaan, as Ericsson pulled out an impressive 3s lead. But Jimmie Johnson crashed heavily at Turn 2 with six laps to go, leading to a red flag with five laps to go.
At the restart with two laps to go, Ericsson led O’Ward, Kanaan and Rosenqvist to the green flag. Ericsson jumped clear with aggressive weaving, O’Ward attacked around the outside of Turn 1 but Ericsson held him off.
Karam’s crash off Turn 2 on the final lap ended the race, with Ericsson taking the win ahead of O’Ward, Kanaan, Rosenqvist and Rossi.
Read Also:
- Indy 500 winner Ericsson: “I can’t believe it! I’m so happy!”
- McLaughlin “gutted” after shunting out of the Indy 500
- Grosjean left puzzled by crash in the Indy 500
- VeeKay sorry for ECR team after Indy 500 crash
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Points 1 Marcus Ericsson
Chip Ganassi Racing 200 2:51'00.643 2
Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren SP 200 2:51'02.436 1.792 3
Tony Kanaan
Chip Ganassi Racing 200 2:51'04.160 3.517 4
Felix Rosenqvist
Arrow McLaren SP 200 2:51'04.769 4.126 5
Alexander Rossi
Andretti Autosport 200 2:51'05.623 4.980 6
Conor Daly
Ed Carpenter Racing 200 2:51'05.723 5.079 7
Helio Castroneves
Meyer Shank Racing 200 2:51'07.204 6.561 8
Simon Pagenaud
Meyer Shank Racing 200 2:51'07.736 7.093 9
Alex Palou
Chip Ganassi Racing 200 2:51'08.887 8.244 10
Santino Ferrucci
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 200 2:51'10.476 9.832 11
Juan Pablo Montoya
Arrow McLaren SP 200 2:51'11.407 10.764 12
J.R. Hildebrand
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 200 2:51'12.298 11.655 13
Josef Newgarden
Team Penske 200 2:51'12.470 11.827 14
Graham Rahal
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 200 2:51'13.068 12.425 15
Will Power
Team Penske 200 2:51'13.946 13.303 16
David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD 200 2:51'14.271 13.628 17
Kyle Kirkwood
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 200 2:51'15.229 14.586 18
Ed Carpenter
Ed Carpenter Racing 200 2:51'16.203 15.560 19
Devlin DeFrancesco
Andretti Autosport 200 2:51'16.465 15.821 20
Christian Lundgaard
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 200 2:51'16.974 16.330 21
Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing 200 2:51'18.767 18.123 22
Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 200 2:51'25.843 25.200 23
Sage Karam
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 199 2:50'20.984 1 Lap 24
Jack Harvey
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 199 2:51'18.500 1 Lap 25
Takuma Sato
Dale Coyne Racing 199 2:51'22.786 1 Lap 26
Dalton Kellett
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 198 2:51'19.269 2 Laps 27
Stefan Wilson DragonSpeed / Cusick Motorsports 198 2:51'20.153 2 Laps 28
Jimmie Johnson
Chip Ganassi Racing 193 2:40'00.723 7 Laps 29
Scott McLaughlin
Team Penske 150 2:03'26.779 50 Laps 30
Colton Herta
Andretti Autosport 129 1:51'26.138 71 Laps 31
Romain Grosjean
Andretti Autosport 105 1:26'22.626 95 Laps 32
Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing 68 53'49.609 132 Laps 33
Rinus van Kalmthout
Ed Carpenter Racing 38 26'45.429 162 Laps View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article McLaughlin “gutted” after shunting out of the Indy 500
Next article Indy 500 winner Ericsson: “I can’t believe it! I’m so happy!”
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Charles Bradley
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Formula 1
Formula 1 1 y
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Aug 13, 2024
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Aug 12, 2024
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
Latest news
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
33 min
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
1 h
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
2 h
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Feature
Discover prime content
How Spanish engineering and Alex Palou brought IndyCar to Barcelona
Feature
IndyCar
Feature
IndyCar 14 d
By Joey Barnes
How Spanish engineering and Alex Palou brought IndyCar to Barcelona
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Feature
IndyCar
Feature
IndyCar 1 mo
By Joey Barnes
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
IndyCar
By Joey Barnes
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe