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.”
