INSIGHT: On the day Ericsson_Marcus reveals his image on the BorgTrophy, his CGRTeams race engineer BradleyGoldberg reveals why 'this reserved, calculated mathematician had to turn into a lion!' Indy500 IndyCar
Ericsson’s silver visage on the legendary Borg-Warner Trophy
That said, Ericsson was wonderfully happy and deservedly satisfied by his day’s work, and the following morning was able to. But then the schedule of obligations for an Indy 500 winner restricted ME’s me-time and kept him on his toes with interviews, photoshoots, studio visits, meet-n-greets, banquets… And just a couple of days after that, he was strapping into his milk-scented #8 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda and hitting the track at Belle Isle for the next round of the NTT IndyCar Series.
Ericsson and Goldberg are a match made in heaven. Not for the first time nor the last, Chip Ganassi proves he knows how to get the best from his drivers.“One of the things he did very well at Indy this year was that whenever there was a pack on the track in practice, he’d jump right in and get after it, learn all he could know about running in dirty air. That feedback was invaluable.
“We found some things at Texas that suited Marcus and helped set us up for Indy, in terms of the feeling of the car, and what he’d be looking for at Indy to allow him to extract everything he could,” he says. “But that third place was a momentum-building result, not just for Marcus but for the whole team, particularly the #8 side of the team. It was a confidence booster for me, for the tire-changers, the refueler, the spotter, everyone really.
“The reason the pack is spreading out is the variable of weather and track conditions. The track heats up and becomes slicker, more treacherous, and the hotter the ambient temperature, the thinner the air, so there’s less downforce provided by the wings.
Ericsson’s angst over what had just happened and anxiety over what was to come was understandable. Such was the draft effect down the front straight, in none of the previous restarts had the leader out of Turn 4 been the leader into Turn 1, and O’Ward is never reticent about making moves, especially when the glittering prize of Indy 500 glory is just two racing laps away. But Goldberg reassured his driver on that topic.
Sure enough, approaching that oh-so-daunting T1 for the final time, O’Ward pulled out and drew alongside the Ganassi car, but he was on the outside, so when Ericsson necessarily eased right, too, to take something closer to the ideal racing line, O’Ward had to breathe the throttle and concede. His challenge was over.