Marcus Ericsson emerges from chaos to win at St. Petersburg

If there was a favorite to win the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, they ran into issues on Sunday. One after another it seemed the fastest drivers and cars were crashing or breaking down.

There to pick up the pieces? None other than Marcus Ericsson, who just kept driving and ended up in victory lane for the first IndyCar Series victory of 2023.

Right from the start the race was frantic. A lap one incident sent No. 29 Devlin DeFrancesco airborne before turn four, and brought out a red flag. Both Meyer Shank Racing and A.J. Foyt Racing cars were eliminated in the crash.

After the stoppage, pole winner Romain Grosjean in the No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda drove away, followed closely by teammate Colton Herta.

After the first cycle of pit stops the No. 20 of Conor Daly spun after contact with the No. 27 of Kyle Kirkwood, bringing out a caution. Scott McLaughlin, defending race winner, took his No. 3 car to the lead during the cycle with crafty tire strategy, pulling ahead of Grosjean before the caution.

On the restart, a three car accident took out Rinus VeeKay and Jack Harvey. Harvey was taken to a local hospital for evaluation after getting out of the car under his own power and walking to the ambulance. Kirkwood, the third car involved, took flight over the back of Harvey, who collided with VeeKay's car after he'd hit a tire barrier, but was able to continue in the race.

Action resumed for a few laps, but the yellow flag flew once again after Herta was hip-checked into the wall by defending series champion Will Power, ending his day at the halfway point of the 100 lap race. Power served an avoidable contact penalty for the incident, but continued on to a top ten finish.

The final green flag pitstops set up a thrilling battle with McLaughlin and Grosjean, which would come down to whether or not Grosjean, who had brought his tires up to temperature pitting a few laps before McLaughlin, would be able to pass McLaughlin coming out of pit lane on cold tires.

The result was an accident that ended Grosjean's day just three corners after the battle began. Grosjean attempted to pass McLaughlin around the outside of a tight 90º corner, but McLaughlin locked up his rear brakes and slid into Grosjean. Both cars ended up in the tire barrier. McLaughlin was able to continue but recieved an avoidable contact penalty.

Pato O'Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was there to inherit the lead, followed by Chip Ganassi's Ericsson and Scott Dixon. O'Ward seemed like he'd be able to hold off the Ganassi cars until a rare engine misfire in his car caused him to lose speed with just four laps to go. Ericsson pounced down the long front straightaway and found himself in victory lane. O'Ward held off Dixon for second.

Hits:

Marcus Ericsson. He ended up in victory lane despite all the drama and attrition, something he's done multiple times now. Could this be his year after all?

Alexander Rossi. Rossi's first drive for McLaren ends with a fourth place result. Not bad, all things considered. He was fighting in the top six before McLaughlin and Grosjean came together, and earned his top five finish.

Callum Ilott and Agustin Canapino. How about the Juncos Hollinger folks! Ilott finished fifth to kick off his sophomore IndyCar season, and Canapino finished 12th after all the chaos. A welcome start to the year for both drivers, exceeding expectations for the small JHR team.

Andretti Autosport. Believe it or not, Andretti had the fastest cars on Sunday. They locked out the first row of the starting grid in qualifying and looked much more competitive than last year, a good sign of things to come in 2023.

Misses:

Andretti Autosport. They had fast cars yes, but weren't able to capitalize. All four were involved in major incidents, and Kirkwood — six feet off the ground at one point — ended up the highest Andretti finisher in 15th. They're fast, they just need to stay out of trouble.

Meyer Shank Racing/A.J. Foyt Racing. They didn't even make it a lap. Not their fault, but they'll be left wondering a lot about their cars on road courses until we get to Long Beach in mid-April.

Benjamin Pederson. What a rough weekend for the rookie. He spun in practice, had issues in qualifying and plowed into stopped cars on the first lap of the race. It can only get better from here.

Points Picture

Ericsson 51, O'Ward 41, Dixon 36, Rossi 32, Ilott 30, Rahal 28, Power 26, Palou 24, Lundgaard 22, Malukas 21, McLaughlin 20, Armstrong 19, Canapino 18, Daly 16, Kirkwood 15, Grosjean 14, Robb 14, Newgarden 13, Rosenqvist 11, Herta 10, VeeKay 9, Harvey 8, Castroneves 7, Ferrucci 6, DeFrancesco 5, Pedersen 5, Pagenaud 5