Marcus Ericsson's second place at the Indy 500 was painful

It's customary to say that at the Indianapolis 500, there's one winner and thirty-two losers. The reality isn't quite as harsh, but it's undeniable that finishing second in the Indy 500 is an intense disappointment for the driver in question. In recent years, the second-place driver often falls short by a few tenths at most, just a few tenths away from seeing his life change.

If the coin fell the right way in 2022 for Marcus Ericsson, the Andretti Global driver finished second on Sunday, two years after having already finished the race in the same place, behind Josef Newgarden (Team Penske). If he was rather angry at this moment with the unfolding of the end of the race, with a final restart one lap from the finish, the former driver of Formula 1 This time, he lost in a battle lasting more than twenty laps against Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing). And this, despite having the perfect strategy, allowing him to leave the pits in the lead...

"It's a race where only victory counts, and I had won the race. It's really very painful.", he explained in a press conference. It was fourteen laps from the finish that Palou launched his decisive attack, which the Swede did not expect. "I had these stragglers in front of me, and I was struggling a bit in the turbulence. Alex started to close in, but I thought he wasn't going to attack. And that's the thing that's going to keep me awake for a while. I'm going to dwell on what I did and especially what I didn't do."

“At Indy, you have to win”

Ericsson's reaction, head in hands in pit lane, alone expresses what a special race the Indy 500 is in the world of motorsports. However, given how his race unfolded, the Swede could be delighted to finish on the podium, even though a poor pit stop had sent him to the back of the pack. It will probably take at least a few days for the disappointment to subside...

Second place. pic.twitter.com/LfMHCluY2Y

—NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 25, 2025

“This race was a bit strange. We started quite strong. I felt very comfortable for the first part of the race, then my car became very oversteered, I was really hanging on and struggling to follow anyone. And then we had a bad pit stop that dropped us back into the lead pack. At one point, we were last on the lead lap. So it was looking like a bad day. But we never give up and we keep fighting. And that's what we did today. I had some really good stints in the second half of the race, where I felt the car was closer to me and allowed us to get back into the race, and the last pit stop was very good, with a good strategy as well. I'm very proud of that fight. It sucks. Second place is a good result, but here, it's not a good result. Here, you have to win.”

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