Marcus Ericsson crashes in practice for 2024 Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS – There had already been another crash on the third practice day for the 108th Indianapolis 500. That didn’t make Marcus Ericsson’s crash any less jarring.

When the 2022 race winner approached Turn 4 at approximately 3:50 p.m., Ericsson got too low to the inside curb, crossing the white line separating the track from the curb before spinning. As Ericsson appeared to overcorrect, the left side of his No. 28 Honda barreled into the outside wall before skidding across the track only to slam into the inside wall, and lastly hitting the pit road attenuator.

Ericsson’s car took substantially more damage than Linus Lundqvist’s No. 8 Honda earlier Thursday. The front left and the nose of the Delaware Life vehicle seems to be destroyed, as the front left tire almost flew off. The left rear tire was mangled, as well.

The Swede climbed out of his car and walked away, and told reporters that he felt OK less than 30 minutes later.

“We were in a bit of a pack of cars,” Ericsson said. “The car kind of snapped on me in the middle of the corner, and when that happens you’re kind of a passenger at this place.”

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Ericsson said the three-hit crash was "probably" the most hits in a single crash of his five-year IndyCar Series career. Like Lundqvist, Ericsson’s immediate thoughts after the crash were disappointment surrounding the work his Andretti Global team had done to prepare the car.

“All the progress we’ve made so far is going to be sort of lost,” Ericsson said. “… I’m guessing we’re going to be set back quite a bit. I think we made some good progress today, which makes it even more disappointing.”

At the time of the crash, Ericsson had completed 79 laps with a top lap speed of 224.592 mph.

Contact Kyle Smedley at kmsmedley213@gmail.com or on X @KyleSmedley_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500 2024: Marcus Ericsson crashes in practice