Marcus Ericsson wins wild Indy 500 after Scott Dixon penalty, plenty of crashes

INDIANAPOLIS -- Chip Ganassi has suffered through 10 years of pain at the Indianapolis 500, but the most unlikely victor ended the team owner's drought.

After leading just 13 laps Sunday, Marcus Ericsson outlasted a barrage of one-car crashes to put himself in proper position to win an epic sprint to the finish, holding off Pato O'Ward (2nd-place) and the Swede's Ganassi teammate Tony Kanaan (3rd-place). Felix Rosenqvist (4th), Alexander Rossi (5th), Conor Daly (6th), Helio Castroneves (7th), Simon Pagenaud (8th), Alex Palou (9th) and Santino Ferrucci (10th) rounded out the top-10.

Here's how the ex-Formula 1 driver won the biggest race of his career and surged to the IndyCar points lead on Sunday.

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Green-white-checkered finish

With 10 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson landed at the front of the field by virtue of being off-strategy on his stops, but made his final stop on Lap 189, setting up Ericsson with a 3-second lead ahead of Pato O'Ward and Tony Kanaan. With seven laps to go, Ericsson's lead sat at 2.7 seconds over O'Ward, and had the race held at green to the finish, he would've likely won Sunday running away. But Johnson, Ericsson's Ganassi teammate, crashed on Lap 194, forcing race control to throw an immediate yellow flag, followed by a red flag with four laps to go -- sending the cars to pitlane in preparation for a green-white-checkered finish.

Two years ago, IndyCar race control was questioned for not red-flagging Takuma Sato's second Indy 500 win after a Lap 196 crash, but Johnson's came two laps earlier Sunday, allowing for the stoppage and the finish under green.

Having landed his first IndyCar win large-in-part due to a late red-flagged race at Detroit last year, Ericsson managed to hold off O'Ward, Kanaan and Rosenqvist on the restart. At the white flag, O'Ward tried to run around the outside but couldn't land the move. Headed to a likely final shot at a winning pass by O'Ward, Sage Karam crashed on the final lap, sealing Ericsson's first Indy 500 win and Chip Ganassi Racing's first in 10 years (Dario Franchitti, 2012).

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Ganassi's bad luck on pit strategy strikes again

A year ago, it was Scott Dixon trying to stretch the first stint too long and being shut out of the pits when Stefan Wilson spun to close the pits before the 2008 500 winner could get in. He was forced to take emergency fuel (his car stalled after running out of gas), then make another stop and restart the race in the back. He made a Herculean effort to finish 17th.

On Lap 175 having running top-2 most of the day, Dixon failed to slow enough by the pit speed limiter, and after making his final stop, he was forced to roll through once more for a drive-thru penalty, ending his shot at a potential second 500 win that has evaded him for 14 years.

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And like the incident involving Wilson last year, 2nd-place starter Alex Palou got caught out at the end of the second stint Sunday. Palou pitted on Lap 31, just one after Dixon, and the Spaniard was headed to the pits right after Callum Ilott spun, but IndyCar race control had closed the pits moments before the CGR driver crossed the pit entry line.

Palou was then forced to run through the pits while they were closed for a splash of fuel, and then cycle through once they were open again for full fuel and tires. He took the Lap 78 restart from the back of the field. By Lap 150, he'd cycled up to 17th but had no way to work his way back into contention.

Lucky for Chip, Ericsson faced no such bad luck.

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Scott McLaughlin crash sets up sprint to the finish

Drivers generally consider Lap 150 to be the "prove it" line where, no matter where you started, you've got to be within reach (most say the top-5) to have a shot to win, barring late-race mayhem. Lap 147 marked the end of the fourth round of pitstops, with O'Ward leapfrogging Dixon to lead his first chunk of significant laps of the day.

Two laps later, Scott McLaughlin got loose and spun into the Turn 3 wall and was lucky not to get T-boned by Ed Carpenter as the No. 3 Chevy ran through the infield and eventually made contact with the north chute outside SAFER barrier.

The race went back to green on Lap 158, setting up a sprint to the finish with no leaders needing any sort of fuel save miracle to prevail. With 30 laps to go, Dixon had retaken the lead, followed by the AMSP duo of O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, with Conor Daly (4th) and Dixon's Ganassi teammate Ericsson rounding out the top-5.

Alexander Rossi (who started 20th) sat 6th, with Tony Kanaan, Santino Ferrucci and Meyer Shank Racing teammates Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves rounding out the top-10.

Turn 2 troubles

With a wind coming from the south Sunday afternoon, Sunday's crash action was largely made up of one-car accidents that got loose in dirty air on corner entry and couldn't hold on. Rinus VeeKay was the first victim on Lap 39 while running in 2nd-place just as he and then-race leader Alex Palou came up on their first round of lapped traffic.

With three top-4 starts in the 500 to start his career, VeeKay now has a career-best finish of 8th (2021) to go with falling back a ways in 2020 (20th) and a one-car accident in 2022 (33rd). Lucky for the field, the entire first round of stops had been made, meaning no one would be caught out on strategy ... yet.

The race returned to green on Lap 46, and after that, Indy 500 rookie Ilott suffered a similar fate as VeeKay -- this time losing it near the end of a stint on burned up tires. He backed it into the wall on Lap 70, a moment where the only member of the lead pack that had pitted was Dixon -- by virtue of having pitted on Lap 30 for his first stop. After he was caught out with a pit lane spin that closed the pits midway through last year's first round of stops, the No. 9 crew made sure to stay conservative early in the race this year while again starting on pole.

With Dixon, Indiana-native Daly also pitted Lap 30 for his first stop, and he also pitted on Lap 70 with Dixon, allowing him to leap up from his 18th starting position to 2nd-place. Soon after the race went green again on Lap 78, Daly would go on to trade the lead off with Dixon, who soon would become the 500's all-time lap leader, passing Al Unser Sr. (644).

Tough day for Andretti Autosport

After having just one driver start in the top-18 in Sunday's race, things went from bad to worse for Andretti Autosport, who had to trot out a backup car with no practice laps for Colton Herta after the 22-year-old's Carb Day crash on Friday.

Herta struggled all day with a slow car hampered by mechanical issues and was eventually told he had to bring the car in and park it for lack of speed, running just 129 laps to finish 30th. He finished just one spot better than his brand new teammate, Romain Grosjean, who crashed on Lap 105 -- another driver who backed it into the Turn 2 wall near the end of a stint.

Email IndyStar motor sports reporter Nathan Brown at nlbrown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Marcus Ericcson, Swedish former F1 driver, wins Indy 500 in wild finish