Marcus Ericsson Wins Ridiculous IndyCar Season Opener

In the opening lap of today's Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Andretti Autosport teammates Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta backed up their qualifying performances by building a quick lead over the first few corners. Then, Felix Rosenqvist and Scott Dixon both had to check up to avoid crashing out of a two-wide run through the narrowest sections of the track. That caused a chain reaction, leading to a bigger check-up from drivers further back in the field and a six-car crash that sent Devlin DeFrancesco flying into the air. That would be the tone the rest of the race followed.

After a lengthy red flag, Grosjean and Herta built a seven-second lead on third-placed Pato O'Ward. Herta eventually burnt through his alternate tires, falling back into third and stopping early to switch to the primaries. Grosjean stayed out for the full length of the stint, but he would lose the lead to Scott McLaughlin in the pit lane after McLaughlin stayed out longer on the primary tires. A lap later, Conor Daly found the wall and started a cycle of crashes.

On the next restart, Rinus VeeKay's crash into an outside wall led to a chain reaction that saw Jack Harvey hit his rear bumper and Kyle Kirkwood soar over Harvey's rear wheels before landing on the ground in two hard hits, first to the nose and then again to the car's tail. Kirkwood somehow continued in the race, but VeeKay retired and Harvey would later go to a nearby hospital for further evaluation.

On the next re-start, Herta saw an opportunity to get past Will Power after Power lifted in a battle with Marcus Ericsson. Herta moved to Power's outside and was clearly ahead into the next corner, but Power made contact with Herta while taking a full racing line through the corner and Herta ended up in the wall. Power would be penalized, while Herta would retire from the race.

A long green flag run followed, with Grosjean on McLaughlin's tail the entire time. McLaughlin was able to hold onto his softer alternate tires long enough to keep Grosjean behind him on the primaries before their respective final stops, but McLaughlin once again narrowly beat Grosjean out of the pit lane on colder tires. This time, Grosjean had a chance to make a move and the understanding that his tire advantage would be gone in half a lap.

What happened next made the race an instant classic.