Marcus Ericsson wins rough IndyCar season-opening race

Jack Harvey was taken to a hospital and Helio Castroneves needed an ice pack and Xrays. A pair of cars went airborne, the leaders crashed each other and the entire Andretti Autosport fleet was eliminated.

Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, meanwhile, won the IndyCar season-opening race.

Ericsson outlasted the carnage on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg for a surprise victory for Chip Ganassi Racing on a swampy Sunday in Florida. It was the fourth career IndyCar

victory for the Swedish former Formula One driver.

“I think people forget us in some conversations when they talk about the championship,” Ericsson said. “We’re here to win. We won the 500. We were leading the championship for a long time. We’re here to win.”

It was supposed to be an Andretti car in victory lane, at least based on the speed the team showed all weekend. Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta started on the front row, but things began to unravel right at the start.

A seven-car accident on the very first lap knocked five cars out of the race, including Andretti driver Devlin DeFrancesco, who was sent airborne when rookie Ben Pedersen slammed directly into his stopped car. Castroneves, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, limped away from the crash while his Meyer Shank Racing teammate Simon Pagenaud clutched his hand.

Castroneves left IndyCar’s new mobile medical care center with an ice pack on his right hand, and a clean X-ray taken on his right knee. Pagenaud said his finger was bruised but he was fine.

Harvey wasn’t so lucky and was briefly seen at a local hospital after Kyle Kirkwood

became the second Andretti driver to go airborne and sailed directly over Harvey’s head. Rinus VeeKay had slid into a tire barrier, Harvey ran into the back of VeeKay and Kirkwood launched over both cars.

“It was a pretty disappointing way for our race to go there,” Harvey said later through his team, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. “I really couldn’t avoid Rinus and then just had a little bit of pain in both wrists when I was trying to get out of the car.

“Physically, I’d say it was a tough race but I felt great.”

When

Kirkwood launched, Michael Andretti slammed his hand on the pit stand in disgust.

But there was more to come.

Herta was sent into a tire barrier by contact from reigning IndyCar champion Will Power, who received an avoidable contact penalty, to leave Grosjean as the last remaining chance for Andretti.

But as Grosjean and defending race winner Scott McLaughlin raced side by side for position, the two cars touched in what appeared to be a game of chicken headed into a corner. Neither driver lifted and both cars slammed into a tire barrier.

Grosjean was furious, first throwing his arms up in disgust and then pounding his first on the stack of tires as he screamed. McLaughlin received an avoidable contact penalty. Andretti muttered an expletive and buried his head in his hands.

McLaughlin and Power said they’d seek out Grosjean and Herta, respectively, to apologize, and McLaughlin did go to Grosjean’s team truck and hugged him.

Scott Dixon, meanwhile, apologized repeatedly for contact with Felix Rosenqvist on the opening lap that set in motion the bigger crash behind them.