NTT INDYCAR SERIES: 106TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500

May 29, 2022

Marcus Ericsson

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: You've had a busy time after the checkered flag. Probably seems like a day ago. Congratulations. Driver of the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, Marcus Ericsson, winner of the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

You've had some time to perhaps reflect on this or the restart after the red flag or your day in general. Give us your thoughts about winning this great race.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, it's still tough to sort of take in. Obviously it's the biggest race in the world, something we all work so much towards, we all dream of winning this race.

Yeah, we've had a really good month. We've been really strong as a team, the whole Chip Ganassi Racing organization has been really good. I knew we had a chance to win today. Obviously there were some stuff happening along the way, but I knew I had a shot.

Yeah, I'm just very thankful for Chip Ganassi Racing, for Honda, Huski Chocolate. It was a true team effort and I'm very, very proud to be the champion.

THE MODERATOR: You win obviously your fourth start in the Indy 500. You become the second Swede to win the 500. Kenny Brack of course the first back in 1999. We have a surprise for you. Kenny is joining us on the Zoom right now.

Kenny, can you hear us?

KENNY BRACK: Hello.

THE MODERATOR: There he is.

KENNY BRACK: You finally put your talents to good use today. Congratulations. It was a good drive, Marcus. I was really pleased for you. I know you worked a long time for this. Was a great race, great drive today. Very well deserved.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Thank you, Kenny. I appreciate that. It means a lot hearing that.

Kenny was the one that helped me from go-karts to single-seaters. He's done very, very much for my career. He's one of the persons that I wouldn't be here without him and his help throughout my career. So I'm very thankful for those words, Kenny.

THE MODERATOR: Kenny, do you feel like you're part of this in some form or fashion?

KENNY BRACK: No, I think Marcus has done a great job. I helped him in the beginning. I think I did a little bit to help him along the way with tips and driving and so forth.

But you've obviously honed your skills in a big way since then, so it's good to see that it pays off, you know, all the hard work you must have done. It's great to see.

So a big congratulations. I don't think you realize yet what this means for your career, but you will find out in time.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Thank you, Kenny. I think one of the things I learned from Kenny, the biggest thing, is that you have to work hard to get somewhere. Kenny worked hard. He made me work very hard. I learned that. Like he said, hard work pays off. There's a lot of hard work behind this win today.

THE MODERATOR: Kenny, appreciate you doing this. Great to hear you and see you earlier today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

KENNY BRACK: Always great to be there. Congratulations again. Have a little bit of a party tonight, huh?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I will.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It was Al Unser, Jr. after something happened in the 1989 race, he got beat by Emerson Fittipaldi. He said when it comes down to it in the final laps, the only thing that matters in a driver's mind is winning the Indy 500. What was on your mind? Was that part of it, too, that was driving you those last two laps, the weaving, whatever you want to call it, the evasive maneuvers to keep Pato at bay?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I think we did a really good last pit sequence. The car was fast. Got some free laps around that. Came out third and caught Felix and Pato and passed them, pulled a gap. I was hoping that was the race-winning move. Had that three-second gap. We had it covered. The only thing that could stop us was a caution, and of course that caution came.

It's not supposed to be easy to win the 500. Those 10 minutes sitting there in the pit lane during that red flag was some of the hardest 10 minutes of my life probably, thinking what to do, thinking that I'm leading the biggest race in the world, and I'm that close to win it.

I knew Pato was going to have a run on me because up front we've seen all month it's really hard to defend when you're up front. I was actually sitting during dinner here at the Speedway on infield last night talking with Dario about this type of scenario, if I'm leading when it's towards the end of the race the last couple laps, what to do, how to break the tow of the car behind, how to place the car. We had that very conversation last night. That was in my mind when I was sitting there during that red flag.

I just tried to go out and execute that plan I had made in my head. Pato had a really good run on me. I wanted to put him on the outside because I knew it was going to be hard to go around my outside. I was not going to lift. There was no way I was going to lift. I just kept my foot down and that was the race-winning move.

He made me work for it, for sure.

Q. On the last lap when there's another caution, is it a thousand-pound weight lifted off your head? What is it like knowing you've won it?

MARCUS ERICSSON: To be honest, when that caution came out, I don't know, I thought it was going to be another restart. I was like, I can't believe it, another one.

Then they're like, We're coming to the checkered flag under caution.

First I was angry, then I just realized that won me the race. Yeah, it's explosion of emotions from that point.

Q. You got a tuxedo for tomorrow?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I do not, but I'll get one (laughter). I have one in Sweden. I don't know if we can fly it in.

Q. You called this the biggest race in the world. I imagine it's the biggest win of your career.

MARCUS ERICSSON: By a million miles (smiling).

Q. You come from Formula 1, you reinvent yourself here. What is that like?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It's been tough. I did five years in Formula 1, almost a hundred Grand Prixs, running for small teams, towards the back most of it. You don't get a lot of credit running in the back in Formula 1. People think you are not very good.

I came over here, and people probably didn't think much of that. I had to work my way here as well, learning American racing. Moved here, put my whole life into trying to become an INDYCAR and mainly Indianapolis 500 champion.

It's been tough. It's been not easy. But I've been working extremely hard. It feels good to show that hard works pay off. Yeah, winning the Indy 500, it's not bad for a pay driver, so it's good.

Q. How long do you want to be a pay driver?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I don't know, you tell me. But not bad for a pay driver.

Q. You podiumed at Texas, Jimmie finished sixth. You left Texas feeling pretty good. Where did the shift come that you settled in and you were comfortable at ovals and said you think you can win the Indy 500?

MARCUS ERICSSON: When I came to INDYCAR and American racing, one of the big reasons was the ovals because I always thought the ovals was something that would suit me. I always enjoyed the tracks in Europe that had a lot of high-speed content.

When I was going towards the end of that Formula 1 career, my goal was to get to INDYCAR. I came here, had a very open mind about ovals, wanted to learn everything I could about it, and enjoyed it from the first moment.

I learned very quickly that, on the ovals, experience is very important and the small details in the way you drive, the way you set up the car, the way you have to adjust your car in a race, that was things that I didn't really understand at the beginning, so it took me some time to sort of understand that and learn.

Great teammates. First Hinch and Schmidt Peterson, and then having Dixie, T.K. and Jimmie and Alex, I had the best teachers there to learn from.

After last season where we had a really strong season, it was a breakthrough year for me, won my first two races here in INDYCAR, it was very clear that the ovals were our weak point. We didn't really have any good results on the ovals next year.

Me and Brad, my engineer, we put in a lot of work in the off-season to really analyze that, focus on the oval stuff. I studied a lot of on-board videos from races, watched a lot of Indy 500s, watched a lot of Scott Dixon on-boards to try to learn those small details.

I think that Texas podium was a sign of that work that we put in in the off-season was actually paying off. It gave me a lot of confidence going into the month of May. I felt from day one here in Indianapolis, I've been super fast. I've been mostly top 10, but top five every single session. I knew I had a car to win this race.

Obviously this race is crazy. You can have a car to win, but that doesn't mean you are going to win it. I knew us and Ganassi, we he had really good cars on race day. It's just about trying to execute.

It was a lot of hard work to get to this point, for sure.

Q. That's when you said you weren't going to lift. Pato said you were going to put him in the wall. Were you going to put him in the wall?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I was not going to put him in the wall, but he had to work hard to get around me there. I knew I could hold my line. I was going to go flat. He was going to have to go two-wide through one to get there. He obviously didn't do it, so...

But, yeah, that was my plan, to put him on the outside. I knew if I went on the inside into one, I could keep my foot down. I was hoping I could keep my foot down. That was my plan. It worked.

THE MODERATOR: What is your favorite charity? What is the money going to?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I haven't picked. I don't think I have.

THE MODERATOR: You can pick right now if you want to.

MARCUS ERICSSON: I did some charity work around the Tim Bergling Foundation in the winter and Avicii, as he's known, for preventing suicide and mental illness in mainly young people. That's something that I'm trying to put focus on.

Yeah, I don't know if that's going to be the one.

THE MODERATOR: I believe this is Mental Health Awareness Month, so could work pretty well.

Q. You haven't always had strong results in F1. Now you just won the biggest race. Do you feel more validated as a driver, or does it change how you feel about your racing career so far now?

MARCUS ERICSSON: They say it's life changing, winning this race. I'm looking forwarded to that.

Coming to INDYCAR, that was one of the goals of mine, show my skills, because I felt like in F1 I didn't really get the chance to do that.

So I came here, first couple years were pretty tough. Took some time to get used to this type of racing. The competition here is, you know, world class.

But I've been with a great team in Chip Ganassi Racing now the last couple years. That's helped me develop as a driver. I felt, like I said, last year was a big breakthrough for me. I feel like I've been even better this year.

I did a mistake in Long Beach that cost me a podium or more, which was still a bit painful to think about. But I feel like I've been stepping it up on another level, being one of the fastest cars everywhere we've been now. I feel like I'm on that level to challenge up front, even though people might not always notice that.

Q. About the regulations in F1, if you would go back, do you change your mind?

MARCUS ERICSSON: No, I love it here. Everyone ask me about that. I love it here. I moved here. I've been living here in Indianapolis now for the last few years. I want to stay as long as possible.

Q. At St. Petersburg you mentioned ovals, needing to work on them. Finishing third at Texas, what did you take from there that made you go over the top at Indianapolis?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I think mainly confidence. I felt pretty good on ovals from the get-go here, but I think, as anything in life, it's a lot to do with confidence.

Ganassi as a team, they put good cars pretty much everywhere we go. Driving on an oval, especially on a superspeedway, is about trusting your car, having the confidence to go fast, right?

That was the main thing from Texas, to get that result, to show for myself that I was challenging for that win, me, Josef and Scott fighting it out there at the end.

It gave me a lot of confidence going into this month. I think that was the main thing to help me today.

Q. Do you feel like you were overlooked at all this month?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I don't know. I think when you have Dixie and T.K. and J.J. and Palou the defending champion, I think it's easy that the focus will be on them for sure.

Maybe after today it will change a bit. I think, like I said, I felt strong all month. I was up there on every session, we were fast. I think we showed today that we could also pull it off.

Q. How were you able to process everything with Dario last night?

MARCUS ERICSSON: We were talking about it. I talked about obviously Alex and Helio last year, what he said to Alex after that race. We were talking. Dario was saying, You need to think ahead, not think about what's happening right here, think ahead one lap, one straight ahead, where you're going to position the car, where you want to be, what you want to do.

We had a good chat about it. He was funny, he was like, If you're in a scenario that you're leading, there's only a couple laps to go, you need to do and this, put the car there.

I was like, Okay, yeah. I was playing that in my head. And that's exactly how it worked out today. He's been a grate asset all my year during Ganassi. I'm happy for that.

Q. How happy were you to see 300,000 people cheering you as the drank the milk?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It was incredible. I think all month there's been so much fans here. Last weekend, qualifying weekend, Carb Day, it's been a packed house all the time.

For us drivers, that means so much. It's been strange. 2020 was so strange. Last year was a bit better. To see everyone back this year, it's been incredible. To win in front of all these fans and people, it was just, yeah, incredible.

Q. Correct me if I'm wrong, I believe there's a media tour in New York coming up.

THE MODERATOR: I don't know that he knows that.

MARCUS ERICSSON: It's going to be a busy couple of days.

Q. Are you looking forward to go to New York, saying the same things over?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I can do whatever this week. I'm fine. I'm happy (smiling).

Q. The move that you used that Dario was describing to hold off Pato there on the restart, I feel like that got popularized when Simon used it to hold off Rossi. Was that something that stuck with you when you saw him do it? Dario was probably not the first time you had seen or heard about it.

MARCUS ERICSSON: No, for sure. I mean, Simon did it, a master class of defending in 2019. I definitely watched that race multiple times this month, the end of that race, to sort of see exactly what he did. That was in my mind when I was sitting there on the red flag.

Obviously that's very similar to what we talked about, me and Dario, what Simon did. That was the way to do it. I just tried to do something very similar.

Like I said, I had a plan to obviously try and break his tow on the straights, then make sure towards the end of the straight I was going to keep it low so he had to go around the outside of me because I knew my car was good enough to stay flat.

That was another thing Dario said, Don't lift, stay flat. That's what I did.

Q. You were talking about the pressure you felt in pit lane when it was red. You were the beneficiary of that type of a situation in Detroit. Are you in those 10 minutes worrying about anything like that happening? Or can you take us through the thoughts you were having?

MARCUS ERICSSON: First I was just angry because I thought I had the race won. I couldn't believe that there -- I knew there was a big risk for a caution, but I couldn't believe it was one of the Ganassi cars. I was like, Guys, don't we communicate and say we have a car winning the 500 here, have a big gap? No risks, right? I'm not trying to put the blame on Jimmie here, but it was tough to take that in and I was a bit frustrated.

Then Mike and Brad came on the radio. It's like, We still have this. We still have the car, we still have the driver to win this, so focus.

I sort of put aside the frustration and tried to go into my myself. I even said to myself, Hey, this is the biggest race in the world, it's not going to be easy to win it, you have to work for it.

Yeah, after the first couple of minutes being a bit frustrated, I tried to focus, tried to calm myself down and make a plan exactly where I wanted to accelerate on the restart, exactly where I wanted to position the car for the last two laps.

It was definitely tough sitting there waiting, knowing that you have the biggest win of your life just in front of you, but still a lot of fast cars trying to steal it from you. It was definitely tough.

I'm very happy that I managed to pull it off.

Q. I asked you whether having run this race a couple times, if you had a sense of what winning the 500 was going to mean and how special it was. I think you said you didn't think you were going to know that would be like until you've gone through it. Over the last couple hours, have you reached that point of realization?

MARCUS ERICSSON: No. I think it's going to take me awhile. Still looking at my ring here, sort of trying to figure out if it's real or not (smiling).

No, it is the biggest race in the world. Like I said, since I came here I've learned and understand how much it means to everyone with the traditions here, with the people here, with everything. I've learned to appreciate how much this place means to the whole racing community.

I know how much people in our team, Honda, how much they put into this race to try and win this race. To be able to do that, it's extremely special.

It was a true team effort as well. That last pit sequence, the pit stops, the strategy, you need everyone there to be perfect to be able to win.

Q. Can you talk after the last stop there kind of how you came to be in the position that you were in before the red flag.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, the second to last stint, I was following that front group. I think I was running sixth maybe. I was just on fuel save all the time because I knew I had a really fast car. I knew Brad and Mike on the strategy side, they know what to do in these situations. We've done it before many times. I was just trying to save as much fuel as possible so we could go longer than people around me. I knew if I could get a couple laps free air, we'll be able to jump some people.

I saved fuel. Then when I saw some people started to peel off, I went full power, started to go as fast as I possibly could. Did a good in-lap and good stop. The guys did a good job on pit lane. I came out behind the two McLaren cars.

I saw straightaway that Felix had a bit of a gap to Pato. Being third in line, it's quite hard to pass. I knew I had to catch Pato straightaway and get to him before he catches Felix. That's why as soon as I came out, I really, really pushed to try to catch Pato and pass him before he catch Felix. I managed to do that.

Again, same thing there, I saw traffic coming up ahead. I tried to catch Felix before the traffic and pass him to be able to use that traffic and get a gap.

It was all, again, like Dario talked to me last night, thinking ahead, not thinking about right now, thinking ahead a couple steps. I think that's what got me to a good position there, got me to a lead, got me through the traffic.

Then when we broke the tow to the McLaren car, we managed to pull away, have that three-second gap. Then it was all about counting down the laps. The car was super good. It was easy to stay flat, but I was staying flat. I was counting down the laps thinking about please no yellow.

Q. You mentioned donating some money to a mental health charity. Has that been something you've had to work on myself, your mental health in your journey from Formula 1 not working out, coming here?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, in some ways for sure. I think especially in F1, it was quite tough not being able to show what you can do. It's hard to not sort of take that in when you get a lot of criticism for your performances, whatever. It's been tough.

Confidence is a big thing. It took a few years for me to build up the confidence that I had prior to F1. I felt like I lost some of that, especially the last couple years in F1. That was hard for me to sort of get that back.

I feel like last year I got that back and I got back to sort of myself in a way. Like I said earlier, I think this year I've been even better than last year.

It is a lot about the mental side.

Q. Is there anything you can pinpoint from your time in Formula 1 that helped you today?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I think mental toughness. My years in F1, like I said, was not the way I wanted. I didn't score that many points. Was most of the time towards the back of the field. So it teach me mental toughness and hard work.

I try and be the one that works the hardest. I don't want anyone to work harder than me. That's something I learned in F1, something I've been doing here in INDYCAR as well.

Q. How beneficial was it for you to have Jimmie in your corner giving his experience at the Speedway in his NASCAR days?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I think I definitely couldn't do this without my teammates: Jimmie, T.K., Scott, Alex. We've all been team effort all month. Any one of us could have won this race today. We had the cars to do it.

Jimmie has been a tremendous addition to our team all year. But, yeah, this month especially. I'm very, very thankful for all of them.

Q. Has it even sunk in yet what you've just done?

MARCUS ERICSSON: No, for sure not (smiling).

I think it's going to take awhile. I'm still trying to figure out the fact that I won the Indy 500.

Q. I believe at Detroit when you won, you had an interesting stat, your first victory, the year you finished second was your first podium in how long?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It was my first win in, like, eight years I think, last year when I won in Detroit. Good I didn't have to wait another eight years for the next one (smiling).

Q. You go airborne at Nashville, then win the race. Now you've won the biggest race in the world. How do you even begin to describe how all that's happened?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I think I come back to hard work and believing in yourself. I had people believing in me, great team behind me, Chip Ganassi Racing. My engineer, Brad, has been a great supporter of mine from day one. He's believed in me from day one. I think that's been the case.

When I joined Ganassi, I don't think many people thought much about it. Just another car to make up the numbers almost. But from day one Brad and the rest of the 8 car crew were really believing in me. Also Chip and Mike and everyone, they gave me the opportunity.

The great thing coming to Ganassi, we added a car to the team that had two really strong cars in the 9 and the 10, but I felt right away they pushed very hard for me as well and gave me the opportunity to show my skills. That's helped me come to where I am today and helped me be an Indianapolis 500 champion.

Q. Can you explain your feelings right now that you are now in a position to share with another iconic Swedish drivers, for example, Ronnie Peterson or Mattias Ekström?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It's like they say, it's a life-changing moment. I'm extremely happy right now, struggling to sort of put words into how I feel.

But it feels good, I know that (smiling).

Q. What would you say to the young Marcus who nearly 15 years ago was driving in junior formulas, BMW in Germany, Japanese Formula 3?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Dream big and work hard.

Q. You've dreamt of doing this your whole life. Does the reality compare to the dream?

MARCUS ERICSSON: That's a good question. I don't know. Since I won the race a couple hours ago, it's been incredible to do the victory lap, see all the fans. Yeah, it's something you dream of for so long. To actually do it, you have to pinch yourself for sure.

Yeah, it's an incredible feeling.

Q. What was it feeling like pouring that milk over your head?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It was good. Again, it was something you've seen other people do over the years. Sort of a picture that sticks in your head that you sort of use as motivation, those days when it's tough, you're working hard, sacrificing a lot to be here.

So, yeah, that moment was very special for sure.

Q. Are you smelling bad yet?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, it does smell a bit for sure. I'll take it, though (laughter).

Q. What would you like to say to the Swedish fans back at home watching this?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I would say that I'm very, very thankful because I know from all my F1 years, I had a great following, I was the first Swede in F1 for 23 years. I got a lot of great support, people sending me supportive messages from back home. That's helped me on the tough days mainly.

Coming here to INDYCAR, it was the same thing. A lot of people following my journey here, supporting me. Even though it's far away from Sweden, I feel that support. Even today, you know, there was quite a few Swedish people here around the Speedway. That's very special.

All that support is, you know, very important to me. I'm extremely thankful for that. I hope they enjoyed that moment today.

Q. When will you be coming to Sweden and celebrating this?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It's a good question. I'm planning to go home for mid-summer. That could be a good mid-summer party, right?

Q. Which people in the background do you want to share this with, the people that helped you during the years?

MARCUS ERICSSON: For me it was very special today because I had my family here, my mom and dad, my brother. One brother is at home. My girlfriend, Iris, was here. My trainer, Alex. My manager, Eje. And my backer, Finn, who has been believing in me since day one, since I was 15 years old.

Also the people that has believed in me in other times when people hasn't. Other people dropped away, and not thought I had it, let's say, and they always thought I did. For them to be here today, it makes me very emotional because to share this moment with them means a lot.

Q. (Question about the red flag.)

MARCUS ERICSSON: I mean, first of all we need to get some Huski Chocolate over here for sure. Especially now. I'll get on that straightaway (laughter).

Yeah, it is tough. Racing is tough because it's a lot about the mental side, keeping your emotion in check. Like I said, when I saw that yellow come out, I got very upset because I thought I had it won pretty much, even though you're never going to relax until you take the checkered.

But then you have to stay focused. It's not over until you reach the finish line. That was the thing that I sort of tried to use all the years of experience that I have in racing.

It's for a moment like this that I work towards. That was I think very important to get that win. Of course, after the checkered flag, it's just an explosion of emotions and happiness.

Q. We saw you have very good relationship with the team, Alex, Scott. How is your teammates?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, it's a team effort. It's been one of the cool things being part of Chip Ganassi Racing, is the atmosphere we have within the drivers. I think I've never -- I know I've never experienced that before, that you have a team with drivers that are extremely talented and good but also work together as a team.

If you cannot win, you want your teammate to win. I think there's very few teams that have that sort of environment. I think that's why we've been so strong the last year and this year. It's because it is a team effort and we help each other and we push for each other. It's all into that.

They all came up to me after the race, congratulate me. Yeah, I'm very proud to be part of that lineup of drivers.

Q. You've spoken on how important Kenny was to your career. You got to hear from him. Seeing as how he was at Indy today, did he talk to you before the race or during the week at all? Did he offer any words of advice or encouragement?

MARCUS ERICSSON: No, I didn't see Kenny this week unfortunately. Yeah, it was cool to hear his voice, cool to hear him congratulate me here after.

Q. Were there times where you thought you were out of contention, then to see you were back in contention for the win? Basically what was that 500-mile emotional roller coaster like?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, I had a good plan before the race how I wanted to do the race. Starting from fifth, it was about running in the top five for the first 150 laps pretty much was sort of my plan.

Everything was going according to plan. I was running up front there, just protecting my race car, taking care of the fuel numbers and tires. Everything was going according to plan until we had that issue in the pit lane where I had to stop for Jimmie actually coming in and we lost from P3 to P8. When that happened, I thought that this is going to be hard to recover from, I think it's going to be hard to be able to win the race now. That definitely was a tough moment for our race.

But I still knew we had a really good race car, so it's just to get back to work and refocus. Managed to pick off a couple of guys every restart and get myself up again to P6. From then on it was game on again.

Yeah, obviously towards the end there the car was super, super good, super fast. Like I mentioned earlier, I had to do some critical moves there on the McLaren cars to get myself in the lead. Definitely not easy, but made it in the end.

Q. We saw Mike O'Gara and heard him putting all his faith in you in the moment of the red flag. I started to think about all the pressure that you went into. I wanted to ask, how did you manage alongside your team to manage that pressure in this type of moments? The other answer is, how much time do you think it's going to take you to be completely conscious that you are now an Indy 500 race winner?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, I think all the time since I came to Ganassi, Mike has been on my radio. He's doing a very good job at sort of supporting me and helping me in different situations. Yeah, like I said, I was a bit frustrated there, but he helped me keep calm and keep focused.

Also Brad, my engineer, came on the radio a bit there as well. That was very helpful. Like I said, it helped me refocus and make sure that I delivered that win. That was very, very good.

Yeah, it's probably going to take me a few days at least, probably more than that, to sort of realize what happened today. But, yeah, let's see.

THE MODERATOR: We will cut you loose. We know you have some other things on your list for the rest of the evening. But congratulations. Win number one at the Indy 500. Awesome to see you there in Victory Lane. Marcus Ericsson, the winner of the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500.