• Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson returns to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship lead with second-place finish at Road America
  • Alexander Rossi scores second successive podium with third-place finish
  • Honda drivers claim four of the top-five finishing positions with Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (June 12, 2022) – Last month’s Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson led the way for Honda today in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America, with a second-place finish vaulting him back into the championship points lead after eight of 17 races. 

2022-Rd Amer-Rossi

Starting fourth, Ericsson ran in the lead group throughout the first two stints of the 55-lap, 220-mile race.  When a late-race caution flag led to a restart with just three laps remaining, second-running Alexander Rossi made a lunge for the lead, but had to abort the attempt and Ericsson used the opportunity to grab second, finishing three seconds behind winner Josef Newgarden.  With today’s result, Ericsson has a 27-point lead in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Drivers’ Championship over Will Power, who finished 19th.

2022-Rd Amer-Pole-Rossi

Rossi, the pole qualifier on Saturday, recovered to finish third, with his Honda-powered Andretti Autosport teammates Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

2022-Rd Amer-Rahal

Also of note, Graham Rahal rebounded from a disappointing 22nd in qualifying to finish eighth today, with his Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammate Christian Lundegaard leading the rookie contingent with an 11th-place finish.

Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America Honda Results

  • 2nd Marcus Ericsson                Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 3rd Alexander Rossi                 Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 4th Romain Grosjean                Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 5th Colton Herta                       Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 8th Graham Rahal                    Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 9th Scott Dixon                         Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 11th Christian Lundegaard-R      Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
  • 12th Simon Pagenaud                Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 13th Jack Harvey                       Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 15th Takuma Sato                      Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
  • 16th David Malukas-R                Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
  • 18th Devlin DeFrancesco-R        Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 22nd Helio Castroneves             Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 24th Jimmie Johnson                 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 27th Alex Palou                          Chip Ganassi Racing Honda [did not finish – contact]

R – Rookie

Quotes

Marcus Ericsson (#8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished second, moves into the Drivers’ Championship points lead after 8 of 17 races: “It was a really good race, and we were strong throughout the weekend. Honda, HPD, and everyone on the #8 Chip Ganassi Racing team did an awesome job this weekend, they gave me a really good race car today.  Finishing second is great for the championship.  I am sorry about the [early race] contact with Alex [Palou].  From my point of view, we were side-by-side and it was a nice racing move. But you never want to have contact with a teammate, and I’m super sorry Alex was damaged there.”

Alexander Rossi (#27 Andretti Autosport Honda) pole qualifier, finished third: “We went for the lead on that last restart, and it kind of cost us [dropping from second to third], but ultimately a good day for us. It took us until the last stint to get the balance right in the car, and then we could make up ground on Josef [Newgarden].  It’s always disappointing when you start on pole, but don’t win the race, but it’s been a good couple of races for us [with podium finishes at both Detroit and Road Amerca].  We’ll take to positives from that and move on to Mid-Ohio.”

Rebecca Johnson (Senior Manager, Director of Production, Honda Performance Development) on today’s Honda podium finishes at Road America: “While we can’t be fully satisfied with missing out on the race win, it was good to seen Marcus [Ericsson] move back to the championship points lead with a strong second-place finish and Andretti Autosport had their best result – across the board – today with [Alexander] Rossi, Romain [Grosjean] and Colton [Herta] all scoring top-five finishes.  The Rahal Letterman Lanigan organization today demonstrated they are improving, with Graham [Rahal] coming from 22nd on the grid to finish eighth; and Christian Lundegaard again leading the rookie field with an 11th-place result.  After five consecutive weekends at Indianapolis, Detroit and now here in Wisconsin, it will be nice for the HPD race team to get a brief, but well-deserved break, before resuming the season at our “home” circuit, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, on the Independence Day weekend.”

Next

The NTT INDYCAR SERIES is back racing at the Midwestern “home circuit” for American Honda, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, for the Honda Indy 200 presented by the all-new 2023 Civic Type R, on July 1-3.