Marcus Ericsson was on the verge of winning the IndyCar Series’ Indy 500 for the second time, but Alex Palou overtook him, and then the penalties started pouring in
“I didn’t expect his attack,” said Marcus Ericsson after his supposed second place in the Indianapolis 500 of the 2025 IndyCar season. The Swede was beaten shortly before the end by series leader Alex Palou, who won his first oval race. This meant that the Andretti driver missed out on his second Indy 500 victory since 2022, also because he was penalized after the race anyway.
Modifications were found to the covers of the energy management system (EMS) supplied by Dallara and to the mounting points between the covers and the wishbones. As a result, Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood were relegated to 31st and 32nd place. Callum Ilott also got caught up in the technical inspection, as his car did not meet the minimum height and position requirements for the end plates.
“This is a race where the winner takes all,” said Ericsson after the bitter defeat. In Indianapolis, the runner-up is ultimately the first loser. ‘That really hurts.’ Starting from ninth on the grid, Ericsson stayed out of the chaos at the start of the race and catapulted himself into a promising position to win the legendary race.
With 14 laps to go, he was leading the field, but then Palou surprised him with a strong attack that ultimately gave the Spaniard the victory. Even the battle between Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster, who gave everything they had right in front of the Spaniard to avoid being lapped, couldn’t change that.
“I had these lapped cars in front of me and I was struggling in the dirty air,” Ericsson explained. ”Alex then picked up momentum, but I didn’t expect his attack. It’s going to keep me awake at night for a while, thinking about what I did and what I didn’t do.”
In the final laps of the 500-mile classic, Ericsson tried once again to get past Palou, but there was no getting past the 2025 season dominator. The yellow flag in the final lap was therefore irrelevant, as it presumably had no impact on the result.
“I’ll go over in my head what I could have done differently. If I had gotten one of the lapped cars between me and Alex, that would have been a buffer,” said the Swede. ‘I probably should have approached the last stint differently.’ While Ericsson lamented the loss, three-time champion Palou celebrated his first oval win and 17th career victory in the IndyCar Series.