Indy 500's Marcus Ericsson and Josef Newgarden Go for the Milk

On a day that saw three red flags in the final 16 laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 2023 Indianapolis 500 came down to a controversial and tense last-lap shootout between Josef Newgarden and defending champion Marcus Ericsson. Newgarden, a two-time IndyCar series champion from Tennessee, surged from behind and crossed the Yard of Bricks just .0974 seconds ahead of Ericsson, marking the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

On Sunday, Newgarden will look to go back-to-back at the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” while Ericsson, who made some errors during qualifying and came within minutes of missing the cut for the race he nearly won last year, will look to avenge his loss in 2023 and taste the milk at the Indy 500’s finish line for the second time in his career.

“It tastes very good after a long race, I’ll tell you that,” Ericsson, a native of Sweden who has raced in the Indy 500 six times before and now calls Indianapolis home, tells InsideHook. “The tradition is you drink it and then you pour it all over yourself. It’s great in the moment, but doing six hours of interviews afterward in a milk-soaked race suit is not recommended. I was smelling pretty gross by the end of it. But it’s 100%, it’s worth all of that and a million times more.”

Getting the chance to douse himself with dairy in front of more than 300,000 fans at the world’s largest single-day sporting event will not be easy for Ericsson as this year’s edition of the Indy 500 features six other drivers besides Newgarden who have won the race a total of 10 times between them — Will Power (2018), Alexander Rossi (2016), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), Scott Dixon (2008), Takuma Sato (2017, 20) and Helio Castroneves (2001, ’02, ’09, ’21).

Ericsson, who will be starting his engine in the 32nd of 33 spots in the 11th row of the starting grid thanks to his difficulties qualifying, isn’t worried. “This race brings the best of the best and it’s always extremely tough. This year, it’s maybe even tougher with all of the past champions and Kyle Larson coming over from NASCAR. This race is like our Super Bowl in many ways, but it’s still a race like any other when you get in the car on Sunday. I know what I need to do driving-wise and need to have from the car to win it.”

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Newgarden, who’ll be racing for the winner’s wreath for the 13th time, also knows what he’ll require from his car and what he needs to do with it to win the 108th running of the Indy 500 the year after winning the 107th.

“We had a perfect day last year, which I think you need to have at this particular event. Everything’s got to go perfectly and you can’t have any hiccups,” Newgarden tells InsideHook. “I don’t approach it differently now that I’ve won and will use the same strategy I had last year. There are a lot of incredible drivers who have run this race for 20 years and never won it. It can be very elusive for a lot of people. It’s special to win it once and rare to find someone who has won multiple times. But the more you’re in it, the more experience you have. If you have a win under your belt, that only makes it a bit more feasible to win another one.”

Which is exactly what both Newgarden and Ericsson, both 33, intend to do, even if it means beating out the other.

“Marcus won it two years ago, finished runner-up last year and this year he’s scraping and fighting to make the field to get in the race. That’s how Indianapolis works,” Newgarden says. “You have to qualify to make the show and you’re not guaranteed anything when you show up. I’m not trying to predict what type of day Marcus is going to have, but it really paints a picture of this race. It does not come easy and there are guarantees. Even starting on the last row, Marcus could still win the race.”

Should that happen, it may partially make up for last year’s last-second loss, a defeat that still aches for Ericsson.

“It’s always going to be painful to think about. I was that close to going back-to-back and you can never get that back,” he says. “At the same time, it’s not something I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about anymore, it’s past. We’re definitely underdogs this year, but this race is 500 miles and anything can happen, so hopefully we’ll find our way to the front in the end when it’s time to win. It was tough to miss out by the smallest of margins, but it’s given me even more motivation to win it this year.”

Newgarden’s motivation to win? Ice-cold milk.

“It is a big driver for me to win this race,” he says. “I’m probably the greatest candidate to win the Indianapolis 500 because milk’s my favorite beverage. When my wife first met me, she thought it was extremely strange how much milk I consumed. I like dairy, especially in pure form with milk. I could not disagree with Ron Burgundy more…unless the milk was not cold. Then that’s a very bad choice. People think drinking milk is kind of weird after the race, but it’s very thirst-quenching. It’s very refreshing. It’s ice-cold. I love that milk is the tradition for the winner.”