Ericsson scored his fifth career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory while denying Grosjean his first. Grosjean was trying to reach the top step of the podium only to come one step short for the sixth time. Coincidentally, Grosjean\u2019s last win of any kind came in a GP2 series race in Hungary in 2011. Ericsson finished fifth in that race, and they spent five seasons in Formula One competing against one another (2014-2018).<\/p>\n
Ericsson\u2019s victory here came 10 days after being confirmed to return to Andretti Global for a fourth season. It also ended his 63-race drought dating back to his 2023 season-opening victory in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been long enough,\u201d Ericsson said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t come as much of a surprise. We\u2019ve had such a good year. We\u2019ve been working every weekend, getting stronger and stronger, qualifying up front every weekend. We might not have got the results we deserved every weekend, but I really felt we deserved (this).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ericsson\u2019s voice cracked during the interview, which he blamed on screaming too much after taking the checkered flag. But he said it was a bold and aggressive drive over those challenging street-course laps.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the fastest car all day, I thought,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, there were a lot of (cautions), so we had to stay out (longer on the final sequence). I wanted to show the pace and open a gap, so we gambled on staying out. I had the pace and we were lapping so quick (after coming out of the pits on Lap 69) seventh. It was a lot of work to get through the leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that charge was contact in the Turn 5 hairpin with Andretti Global teammate Will Power for third place. Ericsson called the hard bump \u201cunfortunate,\u201d but Power said he understood.<\/p>\n
Said Ericsson: \u201cYou never want that, but I had to get through. I knew I could win this race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ericsson won another race like this. In 2021, he emerged as the winner of a trouble-filled first race on Nashville\u2019s streets that included his car getting airborne vertically. The winner of the 2022 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge now has four street course victories.<\/p>\n
![\"Romain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/08-16-Grosjean-Race.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Grosjean (photo, above) settled for second place \u2013 his best since finishing second at Barber Motorsports Park in 2023. Power finished third with series points leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing taking fourth and Arrow McLaren\u2019s Pato O\u2019Ward grabbing fifth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did everything we could,\u201d said Grosjean, who led 28 laps and scored his first top-five finish of 2026. \u201cI wanted to (keep Palou in second place) \u2013 I knew (with that gap) it was safe. But then (Ericsson) came \u2026 unfortunately that (wasn\u2019t our) day. But on to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several other drivers could say the same.<\/p>\n
The race of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing\u2019s Louis Foster had a tragic ending. He started from the pole for the second time in his career \u2013 the other was at Road America last year \u2013 and built a lead of nearly 3 seconds in leading the first 32 laps. But a caution spoiled that as all of the other frontrunners had pitted a couple of laps earlier, shuffling him to 12th place.<\/p>\n
Foster wasn\u2019t to be deterred, and he came charging back. He had moved up eight positions and was stalking Ericsson for third place when they approached Turn 3 on Lap 43. Foster went to the inside, but he clipped the left-side wall, contact which shot him straight into the concrete barrier on the right. The impact was virtually head-on, a major shunt. Fortunately, he was not injured.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
That spot in the track similarly claimed Andretti Global\u2019s Kyle Kirkwood, who was running third behind his two teammates. His impact was just as fierce.<\/p>\n
Kirkwood\u2019s 21st-place finish allowed Palou (photo, below in yellow car) to pull even farther ahead in pursuit of his fourth consecutive championship and fifth in six years despite starting outside the top 10 for the first time in 30 races (nearly two full seasons). Now, with four races to go, Palou leads Kirkwood by a nearly insurmountable 133 points with Team Penske\u2019s David Malukas third, 137 points in arrears. Malukas finished this race a lap down in 17th place.<\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/08-16-Palou-Race.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The new 12-turn, 2.1-mile street circuit seemed to offer the right balance of action and reaction, with a fair amount of race-turning calamity. As expected, the Turn 5 hairpin was a hot spot, with several instances of cars coming together.<\/p>\n
One of the most significant contact in that corner featured rookie Dennis Hauger of Dale Coyne Racing bumping Ed Carpenter Racing\u2019s Christian Rasmussen and then O\u2019Ward. That was Lap 20, and it was part of Hauger\u2019s fade through the field.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s INDY NXT by Firestone champion started the race from the fifth position and was still there when his two-lap slide began. It started with Palou passing him, but then Malukas did and before he knew it, he was 20th. Later, Hauger clipped the rear tire of Chip Ganassi Racing\u2019s Scott Dixon, who hit Rasmussen, drawing a caution.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Another of the contacts in Turn 5 saw Arrow McLaren\u2019s Nolan Siegel charge too deep into the braking zone, where he struck the car of Team Penske\u2019s Josef Newgarden. Siegel was penalized for avoidable contact.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a good day for first-year series drivers. AJ Foyt Racing\u2019s Caio Collet had contact with Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing w\/ Curb Agajanian on Lap 1, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing\u2019s Mick Schumacher drew the race\u2019s first caution on Lap 15 when he pounded the Turn 4 wall.<\/p>\n
The turnaround is quick as the series sprints to season\u2019s end. Next weekend, the 25 car-and-driver combinations make their anticipated appearance in the U.S. capital city with the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. The pre-race show on FOX begins at 11:30 a.m. ET with the race shortly after 1 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andretti Global\u2019s Marcus Ericsson wasn\u2019t to be denied victory in the new Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-857751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}