Ericsson Ends His Losing Streak in IndyCar and Wins in Markham, Ontario

Marcus Ericsson ended a 63-race winless drought in the NTT IndyCar Series with his fifth career victory, achieved on the series' debut on the streets of Markham, Ontario, a race that knocked Kyle Kirkwood out of title contention following a crash at turn 3.

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The weekend began with the circuit still under construction, which forced qualifying and practice to be moved to a shorter block on Saturday afternoon. Series president J. Douglas Boles acknowledged the promoter's delay and apologized to fans, though he added that the track would provide a spectacular race once cars were on it.

Once the circuit was ready, Louis Foster set a track record to claim his second career pole, with a margin of four tenths over Christian Lundgaard. Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Ericsson, Dennis Hauger, and Rinus VeeKay rounded out the top six qualifying positions.

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The session also dealt a major blow to Alex Palou, who lost control of his car near turn 10, hit the right wall, and then bounced into the left wall. The double impact ended his lap and snapped a streak of 30 consecutive top-ten qualifying appearances dating back to the end of 2024. Palou started 12th in the race, though he still carried a 110-point lead over Kirkwood, who would start 15th. Hours later, the series announced six-place grid penalties for cars 5, 26, and 27 from Arrow McLaren and Andretti Global for unapproved engine changes, a penalty that affected Power and Kirkwood among the sanctioned cars.

On Sunday, Foster converted pole into the lead and led the first 32 laps with a margin hovering around three seconds. A caution period altered that plan: the front-runners pitted a couple of laps before him, and when Foster finally pitted, the order dropped him to 12th place.

The rest of the race featured more contact than clean racing. On lap 20, Dennis Hauger made contact with Christian Rasmussen and then with Pato O'Ward at turn 5, an incident that started his fall from fifth on the grid to outside the points. Nolan Siegel was also penalized for avoidable contact with Josef Newgarden at the same corner.

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Foster charged back up eight positions to sit behind Ericsson for third place by lap 43. At turn 3, he brushed the left wall and then went head-on into the right wall, a heavy impact from which he emerged uninjured. Kirkwood, who was running third, suffered a nearly identical crash at the same spot about ten laps later, and that impact ultimately ended his title hopes.

Ericsson exited his final pit stop in seventh place and charged lap after lap until he caught Romain Grosjean, who was leading the race. At turn 5, contact with his teammate Will Power gave him third place before he went for the lead. Grosjean, who led 28 laps, finished second, his best result since a runner-up finish at Barber in 2023 and his first top-five of the season. Ten days before the race, Ericsson's contract extension with the team for a fourth season had been finalized, and this was his first victory since the 2023 season opener at St. Petersburg.

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With Kirkwood out of the points and Palou fourth, the Spaniard's lead over Kirkwood grew to 133 points at the end of the round, with four races remaining in the season. David Malukas, third in the standings, fell 137 points back after finishing 17th, one lap behind the race leader.

The series continues immediately. The next round is the Grand Prix of Washington D.C., with four races remaining before the season finale. The title remains mathematically open among Palou, Kirkwood, and Malukas, though the points gap leaves Palou with a much clearer path to his fourth consecutive championship and fifth in six years.

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Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham

Pos	#	driver	team	laps	time
1	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	90	136:22.234
2	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	90	+7.531s
3	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	90	+10.558s
4	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	90	+10.745s
5	5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	90	+11.166s
6	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	90	+21.784s
7	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	90	+22.170s
8	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	90	+25.443s
9	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	90	+26.007s
10	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	90	+26.925s
11	77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	90	+39.536s
12	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	90	+40.184s
13	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	90	+41.281s
14	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	90	+1:08.717
15	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	89	-
16	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	89	+43.591s
17	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	89	+1:11.889
18	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	84	+44.669s
19	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	67	-
20	20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	66	-
21	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	53	-
22	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	42	-
23	21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	35	-
24	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	18	-
25	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	14	-