IndyCar Photo
MARKHAM, Ontario (Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026) – Andretti Global’s Marcus
Ericsson wasn’t to be denied victory in the new Ontario Honda Dealers
Indy at Markham even as it meant tormenting a longtime rival.
Ericsson charged through the field late in the 90-lap Canadian race to
hunt down and pass Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean for a victory.
SEE: Race Results
Ericsson scored his fifth career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory while
denying Grosjean his first. Grosjean was trying to reach the top step of
the podium only to come one step short for the sixth time.
Coincidentally, Grosjean’s last win of any kind came in a GP2 series
race in Hungary in 2011. Ericsson finished fifth in that race.
Ericsson’s victory here came 10 days after being confirmed to return
to Andretti Global for a fourth season. It also ended his 63-race
drought dating back to his 2023 season-opening victory in St.
Petersburg.
“It’s been long enough,” Ericsson said. “It doesn’t come as
much of a surprise. We’ve had such a good year. We’ve been working
every weekend, getting stronger and stronger, qualifying up front every
weekend. We might not have got the results we deserved every weekend,
but I really felt we deserved (this).”
Ericsson’s voice cracked during the interview, which he blamed on
screaming too much after taking the checkered flag. But he said it was a
bold and aggressive drive over those challenging street-course laps.
“We were the fastest car all day, I thought,” he said. “Obviously,
there were a lot of (cautions), so we had to stay out (longer on the
final sequence). I wanted to show the pace and open a gap, so we gambled
on staying out. I had the pace and we were lapping so quick (after
coming out of the pits on Lap 69) seventh. It was a lot of work to get
through the leaders.”
In that charge was contact in the Turn 5 hairpin with Andretti Global
teammate Will Power for third place. Ericsson called the hard bump
“unfortunate,” but Power said he understood.
Said Ericsson: “You never want that, but I had to get through. I knew
I could win this race.”
Ericsson won another race like this. In 2021, he emerged as the winner
of a trouble-filled first race on Nashville’s streets that included
his car getting airborne vertically. The winner of the 2022 Indianapolis
500 presented by Gainbridge now has four street course victories.
Grosjean settled for second place – his best since finishing second at
Barber Motorsports Park in 2023. Power finished third with series points
leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing taking fourth and Arrow
McLaren’s Pato O’Ward fifth.
“We did everything we could,” said Grosjean, who led 28 laps and
scored his first top-five finish of 2026. “I wanted to (keep Palou in
second place) – I knew (with that gap) it was safe. But then
(Ericsson) came … unfortunately that (wasn’t our) day. But on to the
next one.”
Several other drivers could say the same.
The race of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster had a tragic
ending. He started from the pole for the second time in his career –
the other was at Road America last year – and built a lead of nearly 3
seconds in leading the first 32 laps. But a caution spoiled that as all
of the other frontrunners had pitted a couple of laps earlier, shuffling
him to 12th place.
Foster wasn’t to be deterred, and he came charging back. He had moved
up eight positions and was stalking Ericsson for third place when they
approached Turn 3 on Lap 43. Foster went to the inside, but he clipped
the left-side wall, contact which shot him straight into the concrete
barrier on the right. The impact was virtually head-on, a major shunt.
Fortunately, he was not injured.
That spot in the track similarly claimed Andretti Global’s Kyle
Kirkwood, who was running third behind his two teammates. His impact was
just as fierce.
Kirkwood’s 21st-place finish allowed Palou to pull even farther ahead
in pursuit of his fourth consecutive championship and fifth in six years
despite starting outside the top 10 for the first time in 30 races
(nearly two full seasons). Now, with four races to go, Palou leads
Kirkwood by a nearly insurmountable 133 points with Team Penske’s
David Malukas third, 137 points in arrears. Malukas finished this race a
lap down in 17th place.
The new 12-turn, 2.1-mile street circuit seemed to offer the right
balance of action and reaction, with a fair amount of race-turning
calamity. The track produced 258 on-track passes with 242 of those for
position – the most on-record in the event, which dates back to 1986
when the INDYCAR SERIES made its debut on the Streets of Toronto. As
expected, the Turn 5 hairpin was a hot spot, with several instances of
cars coming together.
One of the most significant contacts in that corner featured rookie
Dennis Hauger of Dale Coyne Racing bumping Ed Carpenter Racing’s
Christian Rasmussen and then O’Ward. That was Lap 20, and it was part
of Hauger’s fade through the field.
Last year’s INDY NXT by Firestone champion started the race from the
fifth position and was still there when his two-lap slide began. It
started with Palou passing him, but then Malukas did and before he knew
it, he was 20th. Later, Hauger clipped the rear tire of Chip Ganassi
Racing’s Scott Dixon, who hit Rasmussen, drawing a caution.
Another of the contacts in Turn 5 saw Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel
charge too deep into the braking zone, where he struck the car of Team
Penske’s Josef Newgarden. Siegel was penalized for avoidable contact.
It wasn’t a good day for first-year series drivers. AJ Foyt Racing’s
Caio Collet had contact with Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing w/
Curb Agajanian on Lap 1, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Mick
Schumacher drew the race’s first caution on Lap 15 when he pounded the
Turn 4 wall.
The turnaround is quick as the series sprints to season’s end. Next
weekend, the 25 car-and-driver combinations make their anticipated
appearance in the U.S. capital city with the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of
Washington, D.C. The pre-race show on FOX begins at 11:30 a.m. ET with
the race shortly after 1 p.m.