Mayhem at the Markham IndyCar race saw Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson finally end his 63 race-win drought. The Swedish driver came out on top of a very topsy-turvy race and claimed his first win since 2023 and his first since signing with the team. The Swede was quick to point out how much he enjoyed the race when speaking after the podium celebrations.
Having cycled to the front, he stayed out under two cautions early in the final stint for those who pitted, although they needed to save quite a lot of fuel providing no more appeared. Thankfully for the Swedish star, it stayed green to the end.
Mega pace before his stop saw him rejoin in P7, before passing VeeKay, Malukas, McLaughlin, Power, Palou and Grosjean in the closing stages to take an outstanding victory.
“Yeah, no, it was an eventful race, I think as we expected going into the race, seeing how yesterday played out. It’s a really fun track here, but it’s really challenging, especially with the pavement being very high grip in the racing line, but off line it’s quite slick. Expected to have a lot of things happening. There were a lot of curve balls thrown at us.”
A return to confidence in Markahm
Before the weekend began, Ericsson agreed a contract extension with Andretti Global, signing with the team for an additional year. This seemed to put some pep in the No. 28 driver’s step, as he had quite the weekend following the announcement. However, in the post-race presser, he admitted that having the team’s confidence was a huge help, though he thought they had been on better form all season.
He further expanded on how Andretti didn’t seem to have any weakness in the 2026 season compared to last year, beyond some unfortunate bad luck.
“Yeah, I mean, it feels great to have the confidence from the team to continue. But I feel like this year, it’s been a trend all season that we’ve been strong. I think I’m the fourth best qualifier in the field on average. I feel like we’ve had quite a few big results and podiums taken away from us from I hate saying bad luck, but things not really going our way, where we’ve been looking to be on our way to a podium for a long time of the race, but few things hasn’t gone our way.
“This year that’s the big thing. I feel like we don’t have any real weakness. We’re very strong on all tracks. Not saying we’re going to stop. We need to keep pushing. That’s been a big difference. For me, the 28 crew has been working really well together. I have a couple of new people on my car this year. We’ve been gelling really well. I don’t see this as sort of a surprise that we’re sitting here winning. I feel like that’s been trending that way.”
A well-suited Ericsson to the new Markham Indycar track
Regardless of the track type, new circuits always bring their own kind of chaos to the NTT IndyCar series. And Markham was no different. Following a delay hitting the track, the drivers got down to business on the surprisingly fast street course, Ericsson among them. The 35-year-old was quick to praise the street course, which fit his driving style well, when speaking post-race.
“Yeah, I loved the track from the first lap. It’s really a challenging track. I think it’s a very high-speed track for being a street course. Usually street courses are more slow speed.”
“This track, like, the first section one, two, three there is very high speed. The end of the lap, turn ten is tricky with the bumpy braking there, a very quick turn in. It’s one of those tracks where you really need to have confidence in the car, you need to be able to attack. It’s a really fun challenge. We’ve seen this weekend it’s a tricky challenge as well because it’s very easy to get a little bit wrong.
“It is a bit like a road course, but with walls around. It’s really a big challenge. Obviously it suited me quite well. I enjoyed it.”
From Toronto to Markham, the enthusiasm remains
Because of growth constraints and World Cup interference, IndyCar moved from downtown Toronto to the streets of Markham. As with any big move, drivers and fans alike experienced growing pains. However, once the cars hit the track, fans showed up, and drivers put on a show, with many new faces experiencing a race weekend for the first time.
Ericsson was happy to see that the energy amongst the fans and drivers hadn’t declined from the exhibition in Toronto to Markham. He said following the race that the atmosphere was still electric despite the uncertainty of a new track.
“It was always a great showing downtown as well. Within the drivers, we always enjoy coming to Toronto, get that atmosphere. All the fans are very knowledgeable and passionate. It’s always been a fun stop on the calendar.
“It was really cool to see that same energy here in Markham. It’s always a bit of an unknown, is people going to come out here. I met a lot of people from here in Markham as well that explored a race for the first time. Hopefully we got some new fans as well that’s going to come again.”
