The 2022 Indianapolis 500 champion and last year’s runner-up, Ericsson was the last driver in a line of four cars when he appeared to graze the curb in Turn 4 that led to him doing a 180-degree spin and pounding the outside wall.
The momentum carried the Swede’s No. 28 Andretti Global Honda back spinning across the track and hitting the inside wall with the nose of his car before violently hitting the attenuator at pit entrance before settling to a stop right in the lane.
IndyCar’s AMR Safety Team was quickly on the scene to tend to Ericsson, who gingerly got out of his machine and walked away under his own power.
"Yeah, I'm feeling okay. Obviously, it was quite a decent hit... Obviously lost it in the middle there," Ericsson said after being checked and released from the infield care center. "I think I brushed the curb a little bit and that's probably enough to send it. And then you're a passenger, so yeah. Very disappointed.
"Very sorry for my team. They've done a very good job and they have a lot of work ahead of them now, so that's probably the worst of the whole thing."
Ericsson’s crash is the second incident on the day, with fellow Swede and IndyCar Series rookie Linus Lundqvist wrecking after making contact with the curbing in Turn 2.
For his part, Ericsson, who is in his first year with Andretti after spending the previous four years at Chip Ganassi Racing, logged 79 laps on the day prior to the incident, with a best of 224.592mph to stand 18th on the timing sheets.
UPDATE: Andretti Global COO Rob Edwards, who also calls strategy for Colton Herta, confirmed to Motorsport.com the damage sustained to Ericsson's crash was severe enough that the team has elected to move to a back-up car.
