Ganassi: Ericsson Indy 500 win down to him understanding team ethic

Ericsson held off Pato O'Ward to score his maiden Indy 500 win, only his third in IndyCar competition after arriving from F1 in 2019, and the fifth for Ganassi's storied team since 2000.

Polesitter and 2008 Indy victor Scott Dixon had led for 95 laps but a pitlane speeding penalty dropped him out of contention and gave Ericsson the opportunity to become only the second Swedish driver after Kenny Brack in 1999 to triumph at Indy.

Ericsson joined Ganassi's team in 2020 from Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsport and became a race-winner last year, breaking his duck in Detroit before winning a chaotic race at Nashville.

Speaking after the race at Indy, where Ericsson gave the team its first 500 win since Dario Franchitti in 2012, Ganassi said that Ericsson had flourished after utilising the deep expertise within the team - including driver advisor Franchitti.

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“He's taken it upon himself to understand the resource in the team and understand how to use that,” said Ganassi.

“You just saw his career start to take off at the beginning of last season, once he understood what we were all about.

“This is the culmination of that effort.”

Ganassi explained that the factors which first attracted him to signing Ericsson were “no baggage, likes to go fast, just need to get him a good car basically”.

Marcus Ericsson, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

“Once he put his mind to that, the wins started to come, the consistency, the points started to come,” said Ganassi of Ericsson, who improved from 17th in his rookie year to 12th in 2020 and sixth in the standings last year.

“This type of experience [practice at the Indy 500] where you're out