Ericsson was up 3 seconds with 5 laps to go and flying to a win when Jimmie Johnson crashed into the wall, causing a red flag that temporarily stopped the race and set up a final sprint to the finish.
On the restart, Ericsson fought off an encroaching Pato O’Ward to win the race for the first time in his career. He is the second Swede to ever win the race.
Named after the 500 miles completed by the field, “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is the flagship event of the IndyCar Series and was first raced in 1911. Its arena is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — a 2.5 mile long oval so large it encloses an 18-hole golf course and has a permanent seating capacity of 257,325, the highest-capacity sports venue in the world.
This year featured the return of all those spectators after the Covid-19 pandemic limited last year’s race to a reduced crowd and kept all fans from attending in 2020.
The Indy 500 was the 2nd leg of a three-part day of elite motor racing Sunday, coming after Formula One’s Monaco Grand Prix and before NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
