By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
In shades of the inaugural Nashville street race in 2021, Marcus Ericsson survived chaos once again on a brand new street course, taking victory in the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham. Sunday’s 90-lap race was the first on the streets of Markham, a suburb north of Toronto.
It was a late charge through the field that would give the “Sneaky Swede” his fifth career victory in the series and first in 63-races. The Andretti Global driver would pit on Lap 70 for a set of brand new, red, alternate tires and bring the No.28 Andretti Global Honda out in seventh place.
Ericsson would make up seven seconds needed to catch race leader Romain Grosjean. The former Formula One rivals would battle it out once Ericsson caught the Frenchman with five laps-to-go. Ericsson would make the pass and streak out to seven-second advantage, leaving Grosjean to settle for second.
“I felt all the way through, especially in the race, that I had a really fast car,” Ericsson said. “There were key decisions there where we decided to stay out. I was pushing really hard to stay out. I know it was not ideal because I needed a ton of pace to be able to pull out the gap needed to come out in a decent place. But I really felt like the car was just so fast that I wanted to try and stay out and use that to my advantage. It was fun, that middle stint when I was doing qualie laps, two, two and a half seconds faster than the rest of the field. That was a good time. It was still tough to make our way back to the lead coming back in seventh. I had to work for it today.”
Ericsson’s triumph on Sunday comes off the heels of a recent one-year extension from Andretti Global, on August 6. With full faith from his team, and Andretti Global’s speed surging in the second-half of 2026, the win was just a matter of time for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 champion.
“I felt ever since being in Andretti really at home in the team,” he said. “I think it’s a great atmosphere within the team. We have a great group on the No.28 car. Like I said, I feel like this has been coming. It’s been a matter of time. This race was fun. The second half of the race was fun to get everything out of the car and just push maximum. When you are in that zone where you feel at one with the car, it does not happen that often. Today it really happened. I really felt super confident to just push.”
For Grosjean, however, a second place feels like a win for he and the No.18 Dale Coyne Racing crew. It’s a best finish of the season for Grosjean, who led 28 laps on the day and tied his best career IndyCar finish (Barber 2023).
The Frenchman also delivered a second-straight podium for the No.18 car in Canada (Rinus Veekay finished third at Exhibition Place in 2025). Grosjean’s search for a win in a car race continues (Grosjean last won a Hungary GP2 race in 2011), but the emotions were there for Sunday’s result.
“I cried a little,” Grosjean said post-race regarding Sunday’s result. “I’m not going to lie, but control what you can control. I did everything I could. I don’t know how the strategy worked for the No.28. I guess the short pit lane helped them, then the fact a lot of people had to save fuel and run out of space. Obviously I haven’t watched the race. Very happy with my team and my performance. Gives me hope for next week, Freedom 250, another great one.”
For the second straight race weekend, Andretti Global’s Will Power finished third, his third podium in the last five races. Power also earns his fifth Top 10 in the last six races as the No.26 Andretti Global crew starts to gel together late in the season.
“The team’s really clicking,” Power said. “I would say like Mid-Ohio and Portland we were really, really starting to gel, everything is working out. Obviously again today another podium. It’s been a good year. Four podiums in a year in IndyCar, it’s very tough, man. It’s very tough to get that. As bad as it has looked at times, we’ve had great potential. We’re really starting to come on.”
While it was all smiles on the podium, it was the opposite for Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Louis Foster. Starting from the pole, his second of a young IndyCar career, Foster dominated the first third of the race, leading 32 laps and looked to be a shoe-in for his first career IndyCar win.
Foster’s race would be cut short on Lap 45, however, while battling with Ericsson going into Turn 3. Foster would put the No.45 Honda to the inside of Ericsson’s No.28. The daring, late move looked to be a success until Foster’s car clipped the inside wall and drove straight into the outside wall with a hard impact, crushing the front-wing assembly, bringing an end to a career day for the 2024 Indy NXT champion.
SEE: Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham Results
Championship leader Alex Palou brought home the No.10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in fourth. Another consistent result, combined with other bad results from David Malukas (17th, one-lap down) and Kyle Kirkwood (21st, incident on Lap 54), Palou can officially clinch his fifth IndyCar title at Washington DC next weekend, if he leaves with a 165-point lead.
The Spaniard leaves Markham with a 133-point gap to Kirkwood, with four races left.
“Just need to win, right? That would be fun.” Palou said with a smile on his face to the media after the race. “That [Washington DC] would be a great spot to win it.”