The Grass is Not Always Greener
Loyalty is not prevalent in motorsports. I don’t care if you’re talking about IndyCar, Formula One, NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA or USAC. That goes for drivers, crew and team owners. It is rare to see anyone spend a lengthy career with the same team in racing, so we will get that out of the way in this discussion.
You should also understand that I never begrudge any driver or crew member for trying to move to a better team or a better economic situation (translation: more money). In my day job, I have had employees leave because they found a job that sometimes practically doubled their income. I get it and I support them in their decision. Loyalty doesn’t put groceries on the table or pay for day care.
But sometimes those supposed better jobs and all the additional money is not what it is cracked up to be. Twice in the past four years, I have had employees leave and want to come back just a few months later, when they found that the grass was not as green on the other side as they originally thought. I allowed them both to come back – but it should be noted that both left again within the next year. Neither has asked to come back yet again. I guess I’ll take that on a case by case basis if that ever comes about, but I’m not sure I’ll do that – but never say never.
We’ve seen a few cases in IndyCar over the years – some recently – where a driver left what looked like a much better opportunity, only to find that things didn’t quite work out as planned. And that’s putting it nicely. I have chosen two recent examples to examine more closely.
Maybe the worst I’ve seen started about this point in the season three years ago. Jack Harvey was the original driver for Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) since they first entered the 2017 Indianapolis 500. They had a plan to grow slowly, adding more races every season, before going fulltime in 2020 – all with Jack Harvey in the cockpit. In 2018 and 2019, their results improved to the point where they were getting some Top-Tens in 2019, and Harvey even stood on the podium for the Indy Grand Prix that season.
The COVID-shortened 2020 season was MSR’s first fulltime IndyCar season, but despite the challenges faced with their first full season and the challenges of COVID – Harvey put together six Top-Ten finishes in what ended up being a fourteen-race season.
For 2021, MSR decided to run a second car for Helio Castroneves in a few selected races – all part of the growth process. Of course, Castroneves won his fourth Indianapolis 500 that year, in what is still MSR’s only win to date. Harvey had six more Top-Ten finishes that season, but most were shocked when he was named to the newly created third fulltime car at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR). I said at the time that I thought it was a strange move for both parties. I thought Harvey was the driver that MSR was building their future around. They seemed like a good fit with each other, and I was surprised that RLLR and Hy-Vee chose a driver from another team, after holding auditions for much of the 2021 season.
As we all know, the move was a disaster for everyone involved – Harvey, MSR and RLLR. MSR hired Simon Pagenaud to replace Harvey and to pair with his former teammate at Team Pneske, Helio Castroneves. Between the two of them, they shared five Indianapolis 500 wins and an IndyCar championship. It looked great on paper, but did not work at all in reality.
Meanwhile, Harvey could not have had a rougher start to his tenure at RLLR. He would never surpass his thirteenth-place finish he scored at St. Petersburg. He crashed and suffered a concussion in practice at Texas and missed the race. It went downhill from there. With three races remaining, RLLR mercifully pulled the plug on Harvey’s time with the team.
Harvey has landed a near-fullrime ride with Dale Coyne Racing this season, but that team is wandering in the wilderness so much this season – Harvey has probably done more to damage his resume that to rehabilitate it. In the meantime, MSR has emerged from the abyss with their current driver lineup of Felix Rosenqvist and David Malukas. Quite honestly, I’m not sure where Harvey goes from here, but I have an idea that he wishes he had never left MSR.
We are currently witnessing another driver that left for greener pastures and possible second guessing himself.
Marcus Ericsson drove for five years in Formula One before coming to IndyCar in 2019 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports as teammate to James Hinchcliffe. He finished second at Belle Isle, but had an otherwise forgettable season. When McLaren entered the picture with Schmidt late that season, Hinch and Ericsson were both jettisoned from the team at the end of the season. Hinchcliffe went to a partial season with Andretti, while Ericsson took his newly acquired Huski Chocolate sponsorship to Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the No. 8 car.
Ericsson spent four solid seasons at Ganassi, In that time he won the 2022 Indianapolis 500, finished second in the next year’s race and collected three other wins. Ericsson finished sixth in the championship in each of his final three seasons with Ganassi.
Huski Chocolate was known to be leaving at the end of the 2024 season. Ganassi was not anxious to pay Ericsson and preferred that Ericsson bring another sponsor. Ericsson, on the other hand, felt that his resume was deserving of him being a paid driver and not have to hunt for sponsorship. Both parties were digging in, and Ericsson started looking elsewhere. He finally found a quality ride where he was not required to bring any money – Andretti Global. Ganassi eventually came around and made Ericsson an offer, but by then it was too late. He had either already signed with Andretti, or had already made up his mind to go. It has not gone well.
Twelve points-paying races into a seventeen race season, Ericsson is mired in twelfth place. Ericsson’s season .has been plagued with bad luck and has gone from bad to worse. There have been two Top-Fives and a second at Detroit sprinkled in, but most races have not gone his way. The self-inflicted practice crash for the Indianapolis 500 led to a disastrous qualifying effort. That put him in the back of the field, where he got caught up with the Tom Blomqvist incident that led to finishing dead-last in the race that he had won and finished second in for the two prior years. Just this past week, he was caught up in the Turn One melee at Toronto, where he finished eighteenth That ended up being a fairly typical race for Ericsson in 2024.
Unlike Jack Harvey in 2022-23, most of Ericsson’s issues this season have not been of his own making. But nonetheless, the results are still there. I get the feeling that Ericsson is well-liked among his crew and teammates at Andretti Global – something that the previous occupant of the No. 28 car could not claim. I also think he was considered a good teammate at Ganassi, but he needed to go where he felt more appreciated.
Also unlike Harvey in late 2021, Ericsson’s move made sense. I didn’t understand at the time why Harvey chose to leave MSR, and I still don’t. I get why Ericsson left.
Does Ericsson regret the move? I don’t know the answer. Ganassi is strong this season. They currently have drivers first and third in the championship. Andretti currently has drivers fourth and seventh, while Ericsson is currently twelfth.
If I had to guess, I’d say Ericsson does not regret making the move to Andretti. This was to be an adjustment year anyway, but it has still not gone as planned. I don’t think Ericsson is in any danger of losing his ride, no matter where he ends up in the points. But all bets are off going into next season. He will have been with his new team for well over a year, and will have had plenty of time to adjust. When you are not bringing any money to the table, the leash gets shorter.
If next season is a repeat of 2024, or worse – I’m not sure Marcus Ericsson will be back at Andretti Global for 2026. At that point, Ericsson will probably look back at how things ended at Ganassi with regret – especially if Ganassi keeps having drivers compete for and winning championships.
We are in the midst of Silly Season right now. With three weekends off right now, expect things to get sillier. That’s coming off of the 2023 Silly Season that many said was the silliest ever. For Ericsson’s sake, I’m hoping he is not a focal pouint of the silly season this time next season. But he and Jack Harvey both are recent case studies for other drivers – the grass is not always greener on the other side.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
July 26, 2024 at 8:50 am
The Harvey situation was especially odd since there was pretty much no speculation that he was planning to leave MSR and the announcement that he was leaving that came in July was a blindsider. It has been speculated that Harvey was chosen for the HyVee car over Ferrucci, but I suspect that RLL and Harvey were likely talking even before Ferrucci strapped into an RLL car in 2021… and before Castroneves won Indy for MSR. Lest we forget, RLL had won Indy in 2020, and the car and crew that Harvey moved into was the same as the one Sato had taken to victory at the 500 (the 30 car was re-numbered as 45 for 2022, with the third RLL car taking 30).
Going back, I suspect Al Unser would have agreed that his move from Chaparral to Longhorn Racing was a grass-isn’t-always-greener situation… though I understand his reasons for leaving Chaparral weren’t tied simply to looking for a more lucrative situation.