Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson intends to stay in IndyCar title picture

Within the days main as much as the IndyCar season-opening race, Chip Ganassi made clear that Marcus Ericsson was a valued member of the group.

“I need him right here past this yr,” Ganassi mentioned of the Swedish driver.

Ericsson then went on to win the March 5 race on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, with a late cross of Pato O’Ward to choose up the fourth win of his IndyCar profession. Ericsson heads into Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway because the factors chief and decided to be a critical championship contender.

He’s the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner — a victory that pushed him into final yr’s championship combat earlier than he light and completed sixth within the ultimate standings. However as Ericsson begins his fourth season with a powerhouse group, Ganassi believes the Indianapolis victory modified the profession trajectory for the 32-year-old former System One driver.

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The win propelled Ericsson on a monthslong media tour that included a weeklong celebration in Sweden — which has gone IndyCar mad for Ericsson and fellow IndyCar countryman Felix Rosenqvist of McLaren — with the famed Borg-Warner Trophy.

“He appears to have gotten extra out of successful the Indy 500 than anybody else has of latest time,” Ganassi mentioned. “He’s been all over the place. It’s been a extremely optimistic factor for Marcus, the group, the collection. He’s grown with that as effectively.”

A lot in order that Ericsson is adamant that folks take the No. 8 group critically this yr.

“It appears no matter I do, persons are pondering perhaps I don’t deserve it or stuff like that,” he mentioned. “I received quite a lot of races and been on the prime of the championship the final couple years, so I’m simply going to maintain doing that.

“I’m right here to win. I wish to win a championship. I wish to win one other 500. That’s our targets, and what different individuals say doesn’t actually matter. However I believe we’ve confirmed final yr and the yr earlier than that we will be up entrance and run, preventing for a championship. We simply have to hold doing that, and what individuals say, I don’t actually thoughts an excessive amount of.”

Oh, however he does care. If he didn’t, then “not dangerous for a pay driver” wouldn’t have been among the many first issues Ericsson mentioned after successful the five hundred final Could.

When his F1 days ended after 97 winless races on the finish of the 2018 season, Ericsson made the transfer to American racing within the IndyCar Sequence, initially with what’s now Arrow McLaren Racing. However he wasn’t retained after one season and Ericsson needed to safe the sponsorship — by means of Huski Chocolate, a Swedish model that isn’t even bought in the USA — to purchase a seat at Ganassi.

However it took him practically two seasons in Ganassi vehicles to win, and when he lastly acquired that first victory, it got here in Detroit when race chief Will Energy couldn’t get his automotive restarted after a late crimson flag stoppage. The truth is, all 4 of Ericsson’s wins have been in races that have been red-flagged, and it was teammate Scott Dixon who had the dominant automotive at Indianapolis final yr till a dashing penalty on Dixon gave Ericsson an opportunity.

Successful in bizarre methods might be a part of the rationale why Ericsson doesn’t get the championship consideration he craves, however he believes eeking out victories underneath unusual circumstances is a present of energy for his group.

“It appears when quite a lot of issues are occurring within the race, and persons are making errors, we appear to have the ability to keep cool,” Ericsson mentioned. “Each me and the automotive, and the blokes on the technique and pit stops and the whole lot. And we appear to have the ability to get the whole lot collectively in these conditions. All these races are very high-intensity races. It’s not type of simple races.

“There’s quite a lot of issues occurring. It’s worthwhile to be prepared to regulate your technique, pit stops, restarts. There’s quite a lot of issues happening, and we appear to be superb at that. That’s undoubtedly one among our strengths. Not saying we can’t win with out the crimson flag, but it surely’s undoubtedly been working for us.”

Ericsson, who started oval racing solely when he moved to IndyCar in 2019, completed a career-best third at Texas final yr in what turned out to be a warmup for his Indy 500 run. Josef Newgarden is the defending race winner and Ericsson teammate Dixon is the winningest driver at Texas with 5 victories. Dixon has received three of the previous six and 4 of the previous 9 stops at Texas.

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