Marcus Ericsson wins caution filled Big Machine Music City Grand Prix

Marcus Ericsson survived the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Sunday on the streets of Nashville.  He was involved in a crash earlier in the race on lap five. Ericsson led the last 24 laps to win the race over Scott Dixon by 1.5596 seconds. It was Ericsson’s second win of the season.

It only took two laps to see the first caution of the race when Dalton Kettle’s car stalled on the front stretch. It was one of nine cautions, with one of them having to be red-flagged. On the restart, Ericsson hit the gas before Sebastien Bourdais got going. The field in front of him had not yet started. Ericsson hit the back of Sebastien Bourdais’s car on the front stretch then went up and over Bourdais’s car. He destroyed the front wing and damaged Bourdais’s car which put him out of the race. Bourdais would finish in 27^th place. Ericsson’s team put a new front wing on and he continued the race.

The big crash happened on lap 20 when Will Power tried to pass his teammate Simon Pagenaud inside of turn eleven and collected six other cars. It was the fourth caution, and the red flag was displayed to clear the stalled cars on the track. Jimmie Johnson got back to pit road and his crew assessed the damage to the car. However, the crew jacked up the car to look at the undercarriage which is not allowed under the red flag. Their action disqualified Jimmie Johnson for unapproved work under red flag conditions.

Colton Herta led the opening 32 laps before Marcus Ericsson took over the lead after Herta pitted. Once Ericsson made a pit stop, Herta resumed the lead. After Herta made his last pit stop, Romain Grosjean was the new leader on lap 52. He would pit four laps later, and Ericsson took the lead.

Late in the race, Herta was pushing hard to get to Ericsson. However, in doing so, he crashed at turn nine with two laps to go. Nevertheless, Ericsson was able to hold off Scott Dixon to win the race. With the win, Ericsson now trails points leader Alex Palou by 79 points with five races left in the season.

During his post-race celebration, Marcus Ericsson couldn’t believe he won. “It’s unbelievable. It just shows in INDYCAR anything can happen. You can never give up. And if you have a good team and a good car, you can still get to victory lane. I can’t believe it; I just can’t believe it.”

The rest of the top ten finishers were James Hinchcliffe third, Ryan Hunter-Reay fourth, Graham Rahal fifth, Ed Jones sixth, Alex Palou seventh, Felix Rosenqvist eighth, Helio Castroneves ninth, and Josef Newgarden tenth. There were four lead changes and nine cautions for 33 laps.

The next race for the NTT IndyCar Series is Saturday, August 14^th, from Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course at 12:30 pm on NBCSN.