Marcus Ericsson fought back the tears after climbing from the car that finished second in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. You want regret? The Swede swelled of it.

“It’s going to keep me up at night how I played that last stint with those lapped cars,” the driver of Andretti Global’s No. 28 Allegra Honda said. “What could I have done different? What should I have done different?”

Thirteen laps from the finish, Indy’s 2022 winner had Alex Palou in his mirrors and more fuel than his former Chip Ganassi Racing teammate. But Ericsson approached Turn 1 a bit wide as he trailed the nearly lapped cars of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Devlin DeFrancesco and rookie Louis Foster in their battle for 15th place, and Palou took advantage.

In a move that seemed surprising given the fuel Palou needed to conserve, the Spaniard made what turned out to be the winning move. Ericsson was gutted.

“I gave it everything, and I tried my everything – I tried my best, of course,” Ericsson said with a voice that started crackling. “But I had that lead. If I had been second after that last (pit) stop and was (still) running second, then fine. But I had that lead! I had that race! And I lost it.”

Ericsson said he never really had a good opportunity to regain the lead as the dirty air flowing behind DeFrancesco and Foster made the handling of the trailing cars difficult.

Ericsson remembered one “half-opportunity” to split the RLL cars when they came out of the pits for their final stop, but he didn’t take it. Part of that decision was based on the fact he had a seven-lap fuel advantage on Palou; part of that was based on the fact there were still 15 laps to go. But splitting overtaking DeFrancesco when the Canadian came out of the pits would have put a buffer between Palou.

Since 2020, six drivers have held the lead here inside of 10 laps remaining but didn’t win. One of those was Ericsson in 2023 when Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden passed him on the last lap. Ericsson thought he’d add Palou to that list in this race.

“I had those lap cars ahead, and I was struggling a little bit in the dirty air,” he said. “Alex got kind of a run on me, but I thought he wasn't going to go for it, and that's the thing that's going to keep me up at night for a while – that moment and what I did and didn't do.

“To look back at that – like I said, that's going to keep me up at night for a while.”

Ericsson said he expects to replay it in his head “a million times.”

Ericsson started ninth, had a slow second pit stop on Lap 59 and dropped to 24th. But he delivered his fastest lap of the race on Lap 67 and joined the contending conversation once he stretched his fuel to his final stop on Lap 175.

Ericsson has now finished second twice in the past three “500s,” but he said the 2023 defeat left him more angry than disappointed as he didn’t think race officials should have thrown the green flag for a one-lap shootout. Both finishes are difficult to accept.

Only 10 drivers in Indy history have won three or more times, and Ericsson knows it wouldn’t have taken much for him to be part of that group.

“I’m that close to being a three-time winner, and I have (only) one win,” he said. “It’s a small margin. But it also shows I’m pretty good around this place. I’m proud of that, and it shows I show up here every year.”

The hiccup in Ericsson’s four-year run is being collected last year in rookie Tom Blomqvist’s first-corner spin. Ercisson had started 32nd due to his Andretti Global program having a setback with a late-week accident in practice in Turn 4.

“Last year was a tough one for different reasons, but apart from that, I’m pretty decent around this place,” he said. “This place is such a unique and special place, and it’s such a winner-takes-it-all type of race. When you’ve won it once, as well, you know how that feels. Now I’ve been second twice, and that’s very painful.

“It’s very painful because you know how close you are to winning, especially the way this played out.”