Marcus Ericsson’s 2022 Indianapolis 500 victory led the Chip Ganassi Racing driver on a semi-worldwide celebration tour that culminated in a visit to his hometown of Kumla, Sweden.
The second Swede to win the 500 (Kenny Brack in 1999 was the first) visited his hometown in November, 2022 and had a sizable crowd at the celebration of a town that had a population of over 22,000 people.
“They sort of closed off the city square and built up a very big stage there,” Ericsson said at Indy 500 media day. “And it was like an open event where they sort of advertised ‘Celebrating Marcus’s Indy 500 Win’ and mid-November in Sweden, it’s not a nice time to be outside, but that city square was filled with people.
“They said it was somewhere between 8-10,000 people in the city square celebrating me. And that moment to go out there on stage and seeing all these people was extremely special to me.”
What an incredible, amazing day it was yesterday ?. I’m lost for words. Thank you so much everyone that came out to see me and the Borg-Warner Trophy ?. Some 8,000 people on the city square in my hometown Kumla celebrating my INDY 500 win. A day I will remember forever???? #ME8 pic.twitter.com/8ceLbTdb5x
— Marcus Ericsson (@Ericsson_Marcus) November 7, 2022
That trip was extra special because IndyCar and Borg Warner allowed Ericsson the opportunity to bring the Borg Warner Trophy to Sweden to accompany Ericsson on his Swedish tour.
The last 11-and-a-half months since Ericsson’s win has been spent doing various media engagements and other celebratory duties when he hasn’t been racing the No. 8 Honda in the NTT IndyCar Series.
Ericsson threw out the first pitch at a Yankees game and attended a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden. The final major celebratory function outside of Indiana for Ericsson was attending the Kentucky Derby.
“The thing with winning this race is that yeah, you celebrate after the race, but it’s a race where you sort of celebrate for 12 months,” Ericsson said. “It’s like so many cool things that you get to experience and do and that’s why it’s a race win that keeps on giving.
“People say it’s life changing. It’s hard to sort of understand what that means before you experience it, but I think it is life changing. I think one thing that’s so cool about winning this race is that you will forever be an Indy 500 winner and champion no matter what happens before or after in your career. It will always be that.”
Ericsson starts 10th for the 107th Indianapolis 500. The race will air live on NBC on Sunday, May 28th with the broadcast starting at 11:00 a.m. ET.
