Smashes, red flags and curses in dramatic Indy 500 finish: 'Next time he's coming with me!'

The first of those 33 was Ericsson, having missed out on back-t0-back Indy 500 wins — and the accompanying $420,000 (£340,000) bonus by 0.0974sec.

He had looked on course to win under yellow flags, when a caution was thrown with four laps to go, but the race was stopped to leave one racing lap remaining — and the Chip Ganassi driver vulnerable, generating a powerful tow at the front of the line.

“I don’t think it’s a fair way to end the race,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a right way to end the race. So I can’t agree with that.

“No, it is what it is. I just have to deal with it. I think I did everything I could. I did an awesome last restart. I caught Josef by surprise and kept the lead into 1, but it wasn’t enough, so for sure it’s hard to swallow.”

The race saw long spells of green running for more than 150 laps, with just two cautions when Sting Ray Robb and Romain Grosjean hit the wall in separate incidents. There was more drama in the pits, when Rinus Veekay lit up his rear tyres and speared into polesitter Alex Palou, pushing him into the barriers and forcing him back into the pits for a front wing change, seemingly destroying his chances of victory.

Palou and Veekay had traded places for the lead in the opening laps, but mid-race saw Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward take control, the McLaren pair sharing the lead so the driver behind could save fuel.

Ericsson was soon battling for the lead, with Newgarden, Santino Ferrucci and Alexander Rossi also in contention and Palou charging into the top ten.

With 17 laps to go, Ericsson had the effective lead and Newgarden swept around the outside of Rosenqvist, who drifted wide and slid into the wall, setting up a slow-motion crash as the momentum spun him around. The approaching Kyle Kirkwood had nowhere to go and his rear wheel was sheered off by Rosenqvist’s front.

The Andretti Autosport car spun round, hit the wall and was flipped, his car sliding with sparks flying as his detached wheel was hurled up and towards the crowd, fortunately missing the grandstands and landing on a car parked nearby.

Going green with nine laps to go, O’Ward lost out to Ericsson and Newgarden at the restart. After losing victory to Ericsson the previous year — and regretting not being more forceful on the final lap — the Arrow McLaren driver tried an optimistic move low into Turn 3, into a space that Ericsson rapidly closed.

Contact sent O’Ward into a violent spin straight into the barriers and a second red flag. Once cleared by the medical centre, a furious O’Ward once more felt that he should have been more aggressive.  “There was seven laps to go, I was going to be going for it,” he said. “I was way too nice and I’ll make sure he comes with me next time.

“I got on the apron to give him room. I got squeezed. I won’t forget that one.”

His mood wouldn’t have been helped by seeing Ericsson take the lead at the restart in barely five seconds of running before a caution was thrown for a mid-pack crash involving Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, Christian Lundgaard, Benjamin Pedersen and Graham Rahal.

With four laps remaining, Ericsson looked set to cruise to a second successive victory, especially as the pack crossed the line again under yellow. But the red flags were thrown once more and the cars returned to pitlane with two laps remaining: enough time to get back on track and immediately take the green flag for a single lap sprint.

The pack was led out by an unhappy Ericsson, with Newgarden right behind him.

“I knew for that last restart it was going to be almost impossible to keep the lead,” he said. “I think it wasn’t enough laps to go to do what we did. I don’t think it’s safe to go out of the pits on cold tyres for a restart when half the field is sort of still trying to get out on track when we go green.”

The power of the tow gave Newgarden the advantage as the white and green flags were waved simultaneously, but Ericsson held on in to Turn 1. “I did a great job there of catching him by surprise [to] get a jump and not get overtaken into 1,” said the Swede. “I think I aced that restart, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

It wasn’t. Launching out of Turn 2, Newgarden outdragged Ericsson, swept into the lead and set about defending into the final yards, weaving towards the pitlane in a ‘tail of the dragon’ move to break Ericsson’s tow — as last year’s winner had done in 2022.

“It’s impossible to not use that because of the ease it is to follow one car,” said Newgarden. “Sitting in first place was even more difficult than what we’ve seen in years past…You were just a sitting duck if you were in the lead.

“When I was able to get by him on the back straight I was actually really surprised how much momentum he still had in 3 and 4. He was super close and had a good run coming off 4, and with that, I thought, I’ve got to be as aggressive as possible to not let him by.”

That extended to crashing out of the race entirely if that’s what it took to defend the position: “Today we had an opportunity to win the race, and I wasn’t looking to take anyone else out of the race, but I was going to put my car on the line to win. I was either going to win the race or I’d end up in the wall. I wasn’t here to finish second, third, or fourth today. I was here to win.