Ericsson and team win Indy Pitstop competition
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| Marcus Ericsson |
The No. 7 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda crew of rookie driver Marcus Ericsson won Friday's MotoGator Pit Stop Competition that capped Miller Lite Carb Day activities at IMS.
In the final round, Ericsson's crew – Bob Jansen (chief mechanic and inside right front tire changer), Ryan Marzec (outside rear tire), Keith Beck (airjack), Brendon Cleave (outside front tire), Timothy Lane (fueler) and Nic Kaminski (inside rear tire) – defeated the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing crew of Scott Dixon in a best-of-three shootout. Ericsson won the decisive third heat in 11.794 seconds, the best time clocked by any crew in the entire competition.
In the contest, cars in each round were lined up alongside each other. The driver had to speed the car into the pit stop zone for his crew performed a four-tire change, before pulling away to the finish line. Ericsson defeated a pair of Team Penske drivers, Josef Newgarden and Will Power, on his way to meeting Dixon in the championship round.
It provided a measure of revenge for Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, which had finished second in the competition for the past three years.