Marcus Ericsson: Alex Palou’s pass for Indy 500 win will keep me up at night
Marcus Ericsson came r💝eally close to scor❀ing a second victory in the Indy 500.
Marcu🅷s Ericsson admitted that it was “painful” and “frustrating” to 𒁏miss out on another victory in the Indianapolis 500.
Andretti driver Ericsson emerged as a surprise contender for the Indy 500 after running out of kilter on strategy, with a late pitstop propelling him to the lead ah🌜ead of his former Chip Ganassi teammate Alex Pa♈lou.
Although Palou had to save fuel to make it to the finish, he was able to pull off a brill🉐iant move⭕ at Turn 1 with 14 laps to go to deny Ericsson victory in the biggest race on the IndyC♚ar cale🅷ndar.
This w🍸as the second time in three years that Ericsson finished runner-up in the Indy 500, having previously lost victory to Penske’s Josef Newga🐲rden on the final lap in 2023.
Ericsson admitt😼ed that this defeat would be hard to swallow for him, given the fuel advantage he had on his rival in the closing stages of the race.
“That was painful to miss out again," he said. "Second time second place here and thi♊s is a winner-takes-all kind of place. Just really painful.
“Still really proud of the 28 crew. They did a really 🍸good jo🌼b race.
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar)Pa꧒lou caught Ericsson by surprise when he found room on the inside of the Swede under braking for Turn 1 to grab the lead with 14 laps to run.
It was expected that Palou woul🧸d prefer to sit behind Ericsson to save as much fuel as possible to mount a late attack.
But with Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Fos🐻ter running almost a lap down and directly in front of them, Palou could use their slipstream to save fuel.
Ericsson said the race-winning pass Palou made at Turn 1 wil🥀l keep him up at night, as he regrets not shutting the door on the Spaniard going into the left-hander.
“We had the lappers ahead of us which was making it dif𒁃ficult and he got a run on me.
“I didn't know if he was going for it or not. That's the thing. I'm constantly thinking co𓄧nstantly now that I should have covered the inside.
“When he got by I tried everything to get back on him 🔯but it's really hard in that dirty air. It's really frustrating.
“I wღas in the lead, I had that race covered and I just missed it. That's going to be a tough one to swallow.
He added: “T𒁃hat's the thing that's going to keep m𒁏e up at night for a while. That moment. What I did and what I didn't.
I need to look back at that. As I said, it's🍒 going to keep me up at night for a while.”
