ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Marcus Ericsson used a late pass to win Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, withstanding a crash-filled IndyCar Series season opener that featured two cars going airborne, one driver being hospitalized and the two top contenders wrecking each other out with 29 laps to go while battling for the lead.
The drama was somewhat expected on a humid day thanks to a record 27-car field. It took all of four turns for the downside of so many entries to appear.
Felix Rosenqvist nicked the outside wall near Turn 3, then got loose. As others checked up behind him, a chain reaction collected five other cars, including Devlin DeFrancesco’s No. 29 Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Honda. DeFrancesco said he saw the No. 55 Chevrolet of rookie Benjamin Pedersen speeding toward him and thought, “Yeah, this is going to be a big one.”
It was. The impact was so hard that it sent DeFrancesco airborne and spun him around 180 degrees before landing. He was unharmed, but another driver involved, four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves, limped away from a wreck that sparked a 19-minute red flag. X-rays to his right leg were negative.
That was only the first time a car flew through the air. The second time was on lap 42, after Rinus VeeKay went into the tires in turn 9 and was hit by Jack Harvey. When Jupiter native Kyle Kirkwood slammed into Harvey, his No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda took off flying over Harvey’s car. The nose of Kirkwood’s car smacked the asphalt, but Kirkwood was (eventually) able to drive it back to his pit stall and remain in the race.
Harvey was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation in what IndyCar said was “out of an abundance of caution.” He was in stable condition.
The wrecks kept coming. Belleiar’s Colton Herta, the 2021 Grand Prix winner, was tapped twice by Will Power twice and crashed out.
The craziest moment came on lap 72 after reigning Grand Prix winner Scott McLaughlin pitted from the lead. He squeaked past pole-sitter Romain Grosjean to stay in front, but Grosjean challenged him on the outside heading into turn 4. The two collided and both went into the tires. Grosjean, a Miami resident, became the fourth and final Andretti Autosport driver to crash.
Grosjean told NBC he was “annoyed” to be talking during the race instead of competing in it.
Ericsson, a 32-year-old Swede, was in second heading toward the start/finish line with four laps to go, but leader Pato O’Ward had an issue with his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. That was the opening Ericsson, the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion, needed to pull his No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into first on his way to a 2.4-second win over O’Ward.
Six-time series champion Scott Dixon finished third.
Nuts and bolts
Gulfport’s Nikita Johnson, the youngest driver in the event at age 14, earned his first career win in the USF2000 series. He led 18 of Sunday’s 20 laps to beat 22-year-old Simon Sikes by 0.5627 seconds. The victory party, however, will have to wait. He had a 5:30 p.m. flight scheduled from Tampa International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, to prepare for tests in Europe as Johnson gears up to race in Formula4 Italian Championship events later this year.
Bucs tight ends Cade Otton and Ko Kieft got to take a lap around the track before the race. Other notables involved in the festivities included former UCF and Lakewood High star Shaquem Griffin, Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen, LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam and actor Simu Liu (star of the Marvel film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”).
