The winner of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, Swedish racing driver Marcus Ericsson, went airborne over another driver’s car Sunday five laps into the race.
Ericsson’s car hit the rear of Sebastian Bourdais’ car and then went over the top of it in the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. (RELATED: NASHVILLE RECAP: This City Is Absolutely Incredible)
Who had this guy leading the race with 5 laps to go?#INDYCAR // #MusicCityGP // NBCSN pic.twitter.com/A48AewqDjG
— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) August 9, 2021
Ericsson dislodged his car’s front wing and then he received a penalty for avoidable contact, according to the NTT Indycar Series website.
“I want to apologize to Seb there at the start,” Ericsson said. “It was an accident. I thought it was green, and I went, and I couldn’t see that he stopped, so I’m really sorry for that.”
Due to the damage from the incident with Bourdais and to abide by the stop-and-go penalty he incurred on the fifth lap, Ericsson stopped in the pits seven times — three more times than Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Dixon and Andretti Autosport’s James Hinchcliffe, who finished second and third, respectively. Ericsson won by 1.5596 seconds in the final two laps of the racing.
“I’m just trying to figure out how I ended up winning the race after flying and seeing the sky,” Ericsson told Fox News.
“It’s unbelievable,” he added. “It just shows in IndyCar anything can happen. You can never give up. And if you have a good team and a good car, you can still get to victory lane.”