Marcus Ericsson went from pondering he had received his second consecutive Indianapolis 500 when the warning flag flew with 4 laps to go Sunday to making an attempt in useless to maintain Josef Newgarden behind him throughout a one-lap dash to the end.
Afterward, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver was vital of the way in which IndyCar determined to finish its marquee occasion
“I feel it wasn’t sufficient laps to go do what we did,” Ericsson mentioned. “I am unable to agree with that.”
The controversial ending started after the race already had been red-flagged twice within the closing 16 laps. Ericsson jumped forward on a restart and was credited with the lead when a wreck occurred behind him, inflicting the yellow flag to fly with 4 laps to go. However reasonably than finish the race below warning, IndyCar flew one other pink flag to cease the race with one lap remaining.
Throughout the stoppage, IndyCar reviewed the working order and moved Josef Newgarden from fourth to second. Then, with the vehicles lined up on pit highway, officers mentioned they’d take the inexperienced and white flags concurrently the primary time they got here round.
It was a wild 2.5-mile dash to the end.
Ericsson acquired the soar on Newgarden and maintained his lead by means of Turns 1 and a couple of, simply as he did in efficiently holding off Pato O’Ward in final 12 months’s race. However with a giant run, Newgarden was capable of get round Ericsson down the backstretch, and he in flip shortly acquired again in line within the hopes of drafting up behind the chief and making yet one more cross for the win.
Newgarden went low down the entrance stretch, breaking Ericsson’s draft, and held on for the win.
“I do not assume it is protected to exit of the pits on chilly tires for a restart when half the sector is type of nonetheless making an attempt to get on monitor as we go inexperienced,” Ericsson mentioned afterward. “I do not assume it is a truthful solution to finish the race. I do not assume it is a proper solution to finish the race.”
The opposite facet of the argument? Greater than 300,000 followers packed Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, and IndyCar wished to do all the pieces potential to offer these spectators a dramatic end below inexperienced.
“The largest criticism we’ve got yearly was we should not end a race below yellow,” mentioned Tony Kanaan, who received the 2013 race below warning. “May they’ve known as it earlier? Sure. May have, ought to have, would have, however we ended below inexperienced, and that is what the followers stored asking us each time.”
Ferrucci: “I do not thoughts what IndyCar did”
Santino Ferrucci, who completed third for A.J. Foyt Racing, additionally agreed with the choice to finish below inexperienced.
“I do not thoughts what IndyCar did. I feel they did an incredible job,” he mentioned. “I mentioned that earlier when somebody requested me what I considered the reds. It is simply I feel Marcus has a barely totally different opinion, which is completely cool as a result of he completed second.”
It was the fourth-closest end in Indy 500 historical past, and one that may little doubt be mentioned for years to come back.
“I am pleased they did it to offer a very good end. Clearly if I used to be in Marcus’s place I might say, ‘Simply finish it. That is nice,'” Newgarden mentioned. “There’s so many various methods this might have performed out, and you possibly can have mentioned, ‘That is truthful, that is truthful.”
Requested for his ideas on the restart, Indianapolis Motor Speedway proprietor Roger Penske – who additionally owns IndyCar together with Newgarden’s race-winning crew – mentioned fairly merely: “I haven’t got any ideas. I had nothing to do with it.”
“We’ve a bunch that’s actually the officers of the monitor,” Penske mentioned, “and to me – we have mentioned this earlier than – I feel all of you had mentioned, ‘We wish to see a checkered flag, not a yellow flag.'”
That’s precisely what the followers acquired. Newgarden, too.
