Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson earns $3.1 million from a record purse of $16 million

INDIANAPOLIS — Marcus Ericsson earned $3.1 million for his victory in the 2022 Indy 500, which featured a record purse of $16 million that nearly doubled last year’s prize-winning total.

Ericsson earned the largest winner’s payout in the race’s history. The 106th Indianapolis 500 drew a crowd estimated by the track at more than 325,000 as Indianapolis Motor Speedway returned to full capacity for the first time in three years. The purse was an increase of more than 80 percent over the prize money from the previous year.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Indy 500 was limited to 135,000 fans and offered a purse of $8,854,565. That was up slightly from the $7,502,500 purse ($1.37 million to winner Takuma Sato) for the 2020 Indy 500, which was held without fans in attendance for the first time. Before the pandemic moved the race to August and decimated revenue streams for the NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 2020 Indy 500 purse originally was slated to be a record $15 million with at least $2 million to the winner

OFFICIAL BOXSCORE: Final rundown of the 106th Indy 500 with purse payouts

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

The average payout to the 33 drivers in the 2022 Indy 500 was $485,000. Every driver in the 2022 Indy 500 earned at least six figures (with 26th-place finisher Stefan Wilson at $102,000 as the lowest earner).

“The Indianapolis 500 is the greatest race in the world, and these drivers lay it all on the line for a chance to drink the winner’s milk and kiss the famous