Marcus Ericsson laments "strange" race at WWTR as teammate Kyle Kirkwood wins

While Andretti's Kyle Kirkwood took home his third race win of the season, it was an equally torrid day for Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda. Reflecting on how the 260-lap race was a "strange" one on his end, the Swede was unhappy with a lowly 13th-place finish at the WWTR.

Will Power started the race from pole, but soon lost the lead to AJ Foyt Racing's David Malukas. The No. 4 driver led the most laps of anyone and commanded the grid for a respectable 67 laps.

However, this lead fell into the hands of 13 other drivers, and leading the final lap was the biggest task. Kyle Kirkwood came on top, continuing the trend of Alex Palou and his domination on the top step of the podium.

This helped the Andretti driver score his first oval win of his career. Though the 26-year-old had a great day in the No. 27 cockpit, the same cannot be said for his teammate, Marcus Ericsson, who led two laps of the fabled race but finished 13th on the road.

Opening up about the weird story of the 260-lap race for him, the 34-year-old said, via Frontstretch Open Wheel:

"It was fun fun racing. The track was really coming alive under the lights. So that was really fun, I think for me it was a strange day we went sort of up and down. We had some good parts, some bad parts in the middle and then we sort of fought back in the end.

"Ironically getting back to where we started after all that hard work, so a bit frustrating. I think at points it felt like we had a lot more speed, at points we were really struggling, so bit of [a] strange thing."

Ericsson was not the sole Andretti driver to finish outside the top 10 at the WWTR.

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Colton Herta suffered a similarly subpar weekend as his teammate Marcus Ericsson

Marcus Ericsson at the NTT Indy Car Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500 - Source: Getty

Though Marcus Ericsson finished 13th, he was still not the lowest finisher among the Andretti trio. Colton Herta was a lap down to race winner Kyle Kirkwood and recorded a 17th-place finish.

This created a divide in results among the three racecars. Reflecting on Ericsson and Herta's sub-optimal race results, Andretti's Chief Operating Officer, Rob Edwards, said, via Andretti:

"On the other hand, it was a tough night on both the No. 26 and the No. 28 teams, but again, it’s a team effort, and everyone contributed to our success today. Now, we’ll try and keep it rolling at Road America."

Meanwhile, Kirkwood's race victory helped him claw his deficit to Alex Palou in the championship standings. He now has a 75-point delta to the Spaniard and remains the only other driver, except his rival, to have won a race in the 2025 season.