The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from The Greatest Day in Motorsports

Breaking down the highlights and lowlights from the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500, and Coca-Cola 600 races.

The Good: Chaos at the Coca-Cola 600

It feels like it has been years since NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 outshined its two predecessors on Memorial Day Weekend, but this time around, it did.

NASCAR’s longest race hasn’t lived up to the standards set by Monaco or Indy recently, but Sunday night’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway left fans feeling good about the final leg of “Motorsports Christmas.”

There were comers and goers throughout the night, and it ended with a double-overtime duel between Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, with the latter coming out on top. Let’s face it: if fans had their choice of who could be battling for the win on the final lap, they likely wouldn’t choose these drivers. Seeing fan favorites such as Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain, who ran well most of the night, going for the victory would have been more compelling for the overall NASCAR fanbase, but the show was nonetheless entertaining. It was a race of attrition and survival as there were several large wrecks throughout the five-hour event.

“Certainly had some good moments today. In the end, as well,” said Hamlin, who also sat on the pole. “Anytime you have a green-white-checkered, you’re going to have some pretty exciting moments. Everyone is going to drive really hard because this is a marquee event.

“I knew that sparks were probably going to fly on the first green-white-checkered, especially with guys with a little bit older tires, then you had guys with four tires like myself.

“It’s good to have a race that was competitive. I don’t know how many lead changes; guys led laps, but it seemed like a pretty competitive race for the most part.”

Since the race had two green-white-checkered attempts, it was a 413-lap contest, or 619.5 miles, making it the longest NASCAR Cup Series race in history. The length of it time-wise was recorded at five hours, 13 minutes, and eight seconds.

The Bad: Race Control at Formula 1’s marquee race

If you’re an American motorsports fan who had their alarm set to wake up in time for the Monaco Grand Prix Sunday morning, you were probably a little peeved that you had to wait over an hour to see the green-flag competition begin.

At least this Arizona-based columnist was. I set my alarm for 6 a.m. and forced myself out of bed to flip on ESPN, only to wait past 7 for the race to actually get underway.

It was raining in Monaco, and Race Control wouldn’t let the drivers race in the wet weather for some reason. Last time I checked, Formula 1 prides itself in having the 20 best drivers on the planet, and one would think that a slippery but slower and small track like the Monaco street circuit wouldn’t be too much for them to handle.

There was a power outage at the track, which prevented the grid from rolling on a standing start, contributing to some of the melee and confusion. But to run laps behind the Safety Car at the beginning of the GP gave fans ugly memories of what transpired at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, where one lap under yellow was completed, and it was declared an official race.

The race eventually got going and what could have been a dream day for Ferrari turned into a nightmare quickly.

Charles Leclerc started from the pole and led the early stages of his home race, but when he pitted to switch to Medium tires, he fell behind Sergio Perez and eventually Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Ferrari had initially told Leclerc to come to the pits again but then tried to change its mind, but it was already too late, and Leclerc was on the pit lane and fuming at his team for its inane strategy.

Perez won the race — the third of his career and first at Monaco — while Sainz and Verstappen completed the podium in second and third, respectively. Leclerc finished fourth, and Mercedes’ George Russell kept his streak of finishing top-five in every race this season alive.

Lewis Hamilton was critical of the FIA for delaying the start.

“I don’t know the reason for them not sending us out at the get-go, but we are Formula 1 drivers, so [the weather] is not a good enough reason,” the seven-time champion said. “I was like ‘Let’s go’ when it was just drizzling a little bit at the beginning. We will talk about it in the drivers’ briefing, but we should have started the race.”

The race ran 64 of 78 laps, which was enough to award full points. Verstappen has a nine-point lead over Leclerc for the championship. Perez is six points behind Leclerc, and Russell is fourth in the title, 26 points behind Perez.

The Ugly: Chip Ganassi Racing’s Indy 500

When it was all said and done, Chip Ganassi and Marcus Ericsson celebrated with the milk in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Winner’s Circle on Sunday afternoon. But it was not a pretty race for CGR as Alex Palou and Scott Dixon — arguably the two best drivers in the field — suffered difficulties after starting off so well.

Palau entered the pits about a second before they were closed due to a Callum Illot crash on Lap 68. When the yellow came out, Palou was just yards away from the entrance and couldn’t do anything in time to keep himself from going down pit lane.

It resulted in a penalty, and he was relegated to the back of the field. He salvaged a P9 finish to keep him within 14 points of the championship lead, but the defending series champion absolutely knows he had a car capable of winning the 500 once again.

For Scott Dixon, his heartbreak was self-inflicted. On the final round of pit stops, he sped entering the pits and had to perform a drive-through penalty. He was in the lead at the time but ended up 21st.

The six-time IndyCar Series champion has done everything there is to do in an IndyCar career. He won the Indy 500 once in 2008, but for someone of his talent, it feels like he is deserving of many more.

Dixon was the car to beat in 2017 and 2020, without a doubt. This year, it seemed like it had to be either himself or Palou to be the champion of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” yet neither could secure it.

“It’s heartbreaking, to be honest,” Dixon said. “I just messed up.”

Ganassi cars were stout throughout the Month of May at the Speedway. All five of them started in the top-12. There was plenty of attention given to Dixon and Palou because of their recent dominance at IMS. And, of course, there was hoopla around Jimmie Johnson since it was the seven-time NASCAR champion’s first 500. And then there was Tony Kanaan, who, for now, says this was his final race at Indy.

But what about Marcus Ericsson? The ex-F1 driver came to IndyCar in 2019, joined Ganassi before the 2020 season, and is now a three-time winner in America’s open-wheel series.

He wasn’t impressive as a driver for Caterham and Sauber during his five years in F1, but he has found himself to be quite successful in racing in the U.S.

Ericsson has three IndyCar wins, and the 500 was his first triumph on an oval. Ericsson started fifth, and with the fallout of Dixon and Palou, he was able to elevate himself to the lead when it mattered the most.

It feels like he was the forgotten driver at Ganassi this May, but the “Sneaky Swede” pulled off the most significant victory of his career. He had the lead with six to go when teammate Johnson crashed. The race was red-flagged, and his sizeable lead over Mexican speedster Patricio O’Ward was eliminated.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Ericsson said. “You can never take anything for granted, and obviously, there were still laps to go, and I was praying so hard it was not going to be another yellow, but I knew there was probably going to be one. It was hard to refocus, but I knew the car was amazing.”

He held off O’Ward as he weaved down the straightaways to keep the Arrow McLaren SP wheelman at bay. The driver, who was once nothing more than just another name on the F1 grid, had to leave the most famous racing league in the world to become an international superstar.

The five Ganassi cars finished first, third (Kanaan), ninth, 21st, and 28th. It definitely could have been better had Palou and Dixon not had pit road troubles, and if Johnson had not crashed and nearly cost Ericsson the win at the end. But a win is a win for Chip Ganassi, and as he tweets after one of his drivers takes the checkered flag, “I like winners.”