2022 Indy 500 Winner Marcus Ericsson Set To Face The Race's Toughest Challenge
Ericsson would win a $420,000 bonus by becoming the sixth back-to-back Indy 500 winner.
Practice for this year's Indianapolis 500 is scheduled to begin today, and the field of 34 drivers start a two-and-a-half mile quest for immortality. Winning the 500-mile race just once is a monumental feat, and one driver has the opportunity to climb the even higher peak of winning two in a row. More people have set foot on the Moon than won the Indy 500 back-to-back.
Since 1995, automotive supplier BorgWarner has offered a rolling $20,000 bonus to the Indianapolis 500 winner if they repeat the feat the next year. If the bonus isn't won, the prize is rolled over to the following Indy 500. The challenge has only been successfully completed once after Helio Castroneves won the iconic race in 2001 and 2002.
Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner, now stands to claim $420,000 (or 4,305,924 Swedish kronor) after the bonus has gone untouched for over 20 years. Including the winner's standard prize, Ericsson could earn around $2.5 million in total with a victory. The 32-year-old Swede told Racer:
"It would be incredible to win that bonus, wow! That's a lot of dollars and krona! Maybe if I win again BorgWarner will give me both krona and U.S. dollars, ha ha. The last year has been an amazing experience and I'd have to say one the highlights was having the Borg-Warner Trophy travel to Sweden and to my hometown, Kumla. Let's do it again, two Indy 500's in a row, and that BorgWarner bonus would be great, I'll take it!"
BorgWarner is likely more well-known for commissioning the winner's trophy for the Indianapolis 500. The BorgWarner Trophy is a permanent Art Deco-style prize that features every Indy 500 winner's face sculpted onto its surface. The trophy is topped with a nude model waving a checkered flag, following the sporting tradition of Greek antiquity.
Across all 106 editions of the Indianapolis 500, the race has only had five back-to-back winners: Wilbur Shaw in 1939-1940, Mauri Rose in 1947-1948, Bill Vukovich in 1953-1954, Al Unser Sr. in 1970-1970, and Helio Castroneves in 2001-2002. No driver has ever won the 500 three consecutive times. Vukovich came closest during the 1955 race, but he was killed in a crash while leading by 17 seconds.