Marcus Ericsson broke the drought.
With a late charge in the closing laps on the streets of Markham, Ontario, the driver of the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda overtook Romain Grosjean down Enterprise Boulevard with four laps to go to win the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham.
“Yeah, no, it was an eventful race, I think as we expected going into the race, seeing how yesterday played out.” Ericsson said.
“It’s a really fun track here, but it’s really challenging, especially with the pavement being very high grip in the racing line, but off line it’s quite slick. Expected to have a lot of things happening. There were a lot of curve balls thrown at us.
“I felt all the way through, especially in the race, that I had a really fast car. There were key decisions there where we decided to stay out. I was pushing really hard to stay out. I know it was not ideal because I needed a ton of pace to be able to pull out the gap needed to come out in a decent place. But I really felt like the car was just so fast that I wanted to try and stay out and use that to my advantage.
“It was fun, that middle stint when I was doing quallie laps, two, two and a half seconds faster than the rest of the field. That was a good time.
“It was still tough to make our way back to the lead coming back in seventh. Had to work for it today.”
It’s his fifth career victory in 123 NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts and first since the 2023 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, 63 races ago.
While he lost the win with four to go, Grosjean stretched the fuel enough to bring his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda home to a runner-up finish.
“I don’t know what happened, it’s not that hard (laughter),” Grosjean said.
“What happened is that we started on the back foot, reverted to the setup on qualifying that we kind of knew better. I think in qualifying, I’m not going to go into details what happened, but the red flag really hurt us there. Then in the race, I felt straightaway we had some good pace.
“It was tough on the strategy to know what to do. It was very hard on the restart. Just couldn’t get much temperature on the tires. Did well every time. Managed to pass Siegel. Took the lead, opened up a gap.
“At the end of the race I knew we had to go 37-ish laps on the tires, on the fuel. That was going to be a challenge. When I saw the 28 pitting, Marcus, I thought there was no way he would catch us. The 10 was behind me, which is always a worry. Opened the gap. We should be safe. Next thing I knew, the 28 was coming.
“Honda did amazing with us. They worked so well, gave us the exact fuel number to cross the finish line with nothing left in the tank.
“Nothing much you could do to defend. Not meant to be today. Very happy for Dale Coyne Racing, Max. I am not going to name all the sponsors. I told my engineer Bill Pappas, it’s not that hard when everything goes well.”
After contact in Turn 5 and losing third to his teammate with nine laps to go, Will Power ran down and passed Alex Palou for the last podium spot.
“I don’t know how we ended up there,” Power said. “Actually we had a really good car on restarts. Definitely made a lot of positions there. Then it was about making good strategy calls.
“At the end there you had to make a lot of passes to move yourself forward, which we were able to do. My tires were pretty done at the end there. Just sort of holding on. But the others had to save fuel, so that helped get us up to third.
“Marcus was just very fast all day. I was going to let him go on the back straight, but he made his way there. There was a bit of miscommunication with the team.
“He’s coming.
“I’ll let him go on the back straight, not lose much to Palou, I’ll get through.
“It worked out well.”
Palou and Pato O’Ward rounded out the top-five.
Christian Lundgaard, Rinus VeeKay, Scott McLaughlin, Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci rounded out the top-10.
Marcus Ericsson breaks three-year winless drought with late charge to win in Markham
Race summary
Louis Foster led the field to green at 12:24 p.m. ET. The field settled into a green flag rhythm. Only five laps in, Felix Rosenqvist kicked off a cycle of green flag stops (for drivers on a three-stop plan). Caution flew for the first time on Lap 15, when Mick Schumacher, running eighth, drove into the Turn 4 wall. Christian Lundgaard pitted from second, during the caution.
Back to green on Lap 19, over the next two laps, Dennis Hauger went offline multiple times and dropped from third to 20th. On Lap 21, he made contact with both Christian Rasmussen and O’Ward in Turn 5. Caution flew on Lap 31, when Sting Ray Robb made contact with Marcus Armstrong in Turn 5 and Armstrong stalled on track, facing the wrong direction. During the caution, several drivers stalled in Turn 5, as Armstrong pulled in front of the field and caused a cascading backup entering the turn. For this, IndyCar handed him a 10-second stop and hold penalty. Foster pitted from the lead on Lap 33 and Nolan Siegel cycled to the front of the field.
Back to green on Lap 36, caution flew in Turn 4 on Lap 37, when Hauger turned Scott Dixon and collected Rasmussen. Dixon drove away, but Rasmussen climbed out of his car.
Back to green on Lap 41, Grosjean passed Siegel in Turn 5 for the lead. The next lap, Foster powered by Ericsson for third, but clipped the inside Turn 3 wall and pounded the outside wall.
Back to green on Lap 51, Grosjean pitted from the lead on Lap 54. Just like Foster on Lap 42, Kyle Kirkwood clipped the inside wall in Turn 3 and slammed the outside wall on Lap 54. Ericsson, along with eight other drivers, stayed out to take the lead.
Back to green on Lap 59, caution flew the same lap, when Siegel turned Josef Newgarden in Turn 5. For this, IndyCar handed Siegel a drive-through penalty.
Back to green with 28 laps to go, the field settled into a green flag run for a change. After building a 14-second lead, Ericsson pitted from the lead with 22 to go. Grosjean cycled to the lead, as a result. With 18 to go, Palou passed Scott McLaughlin for second. With 15 to go, he cut the gap to Grosjean down to 1.5 seconds. With 14 to go, he cut it to 1.1 seconds. Palou ran wide in Turn 6, however, and fell back to roughly three seconds. With 13 to go, he cut the gap by half. With 12 to go, however, he lost time to Grosjean. With 11 to go, Grosjean pulled the gap out to 2.1 seconds. With nine to go, Ericsson and Will Power, racing for third, touched in Turn 5. With seven to go, Ericsson made up the time to and overtook Palou in Turn 5 for second. With six to go, he cut the gap to 1.5 seconds. With five to go, he pulled to within half a second of Grosjean. With four to go, Ericsson powered by Grosjean down Enterprise Boulevard for the race lead and drove on to victory.
Marcus Ericsson breaks three-year winless drought with late charge to win in Markham
What else happened
Caio Collet made an unscheduled stop on Lap 1 for a flat tire.
On the Lap 41 restart, Foster powered by Palou on the outside in Turn 5 for sixth.
On the Lap 51 restart, Palou made contact with Alexander Rossi in Turn 5. The next lap, Rossi cut his right-front tire.
Marcus Ericsson breaks three-year winless drought with late charge to win in Markham
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted two hours, 16 minutes and 22 seconds, at an average speed of 83.156 mph. There were seven lead changes among seven different drivers, and six cautions for 25 laps.
Palou leaves Markham, Ontario, with a 133-point lead over Kirkwood.
The NTT INDYCAR Series returns to action, next Sunday, for the Freedom 250 on the streets of Washington.
