Defending Indy 500 champ Marcus Ericsson back at Brickyard, seeking new contract

INDIANAPOLIS — Marcus Ericsson spent most of his career trying to show he could win races. “I want to be hired as a professional racing driver for my skills as a driver,” he said Thursday, two days before the Indianapolis Grand Prix on the track’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course. So that’s what I’m aiming to do.” Ericsson’s resume certainly looks different a year after he described himself as a “pay driver,” someone who joins a team because of the sponsorship money tied to the driver rather than someone contracted to the team regardless of sponsorship dollars. After capturing his third career IndyCar win and enduring the annual post-race victory media splash, he strung together six straight top-10 finishes to finish sixth in the final standings for the second straight year, just 15 points behind third-place finisher Scott Dixon, a six-time series champ and Ericsson’s teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing. “All my career I’ve been working to get where I am today and I’ve gone through a lot of tough years,” said Ericsson, who joined Kenny Braack as the only Swedish winners of the 500.