Ericsson Runs Third as Ganassi Leads Honda Effort in Texas
Texas Motor SpeedwayMarcus Ericsson battles to a third-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. Jimmie Johnson has career-best INDYCAR result with sixth-place finish. Scott Dixon runs fifth, and defending series champion Alex Palou seventh as Chip Ganassi Racing places all four Honda entries in the top seven.
Chip Ganassi Racing led the way for Honda today in the XPEL 375 at Texas Motor Speedway, with Marcus Ericsson fighting his was from 14th on the starting grid to a third-place finish, with his three teammates also all finishing in the top seven.
Scott Dixon, a five-time previous winner at Texas, finished fifth today, passing fellow Ganassi Honda driver Jimmie Johnson in the final laps. Meanwhile former seven-time NASCAR champion Johnson’s sixth place is his career-best NTT INDYCAR result. Defending series champion Alex Palou rounded out the Ganassi quartet, finishing seventh.
Contact ended strong runs for Takuma Sato, Graham Rahal and Helio Castroneves, while Simon Pagenaud faded to eighth in the closing laps as his handling deteriorated late in the race.
Fast Facts
Following Jack Harvey’s crash Saturday in practice at Texas Motor Speedway, he was not medically cleared to take part in today’s race. Former Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Santino Ferrucci stepped in to drive the teams #45 HyVee Honda, finishing ninth.
This weekend’s EXPEL 375 at Texas Motor Speedway was the first of five oval races in the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. The next oval on the schedule will be the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29th.
It was a really good day for us. We had good pace at times, but car could become quite tricky to drive and we really had to stay on top of it. It was fun out there, the track was a lot better than in recent years, so thanks to INDYCAR for making it a lot more race-able. There were some fun wheel-to-wheel battles out there. So to get my first oval podium feels really, really good. I spent a lot of the off-season working on my oval performance, so to start off with a third is very good for us
I really felt like, once I started running the ovals, I’d be able to prove my competitiveness. I took my time in the race, and as the race developed I grew more confident in the car, with traffic, with my [adjustment] tools, all the little pieces that you need to do well. This equipment at Chip Ganassi Racing is ‘spot-on’, it was just me trying to figure it out. About mid- race today, I finally felt connected to the car and what to do with the adjustments and traffic, and off I went
Racing can be pretty brutal. We all work hard to get to the top step. But today, we didn’t quite do that. I guess it’s a good sign to be a little disappointed with a podium finish. It shows the progress we’ve made and the standards we have set as a team over the past few years. However, this game is pretty straightforward, we re-group, look to progress and move forward. On to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
