Harvick comes out on top of G-W-C finish at Richmond - MotorSportsTalk

A shocking decision to pit for fresh tires with four laps to go proved to be the right one for Kevin Harvick, who charged from seventh to the Toyota Owners 400 win in a green-white-checkered finish at Richmond International Raceway.

With six laps remaining in the race, Juan Pablo Montoya was on the verge of claiming his first victory since Watkins Glen in 2010 until Brian Vickers found the wall to bring out the caution. With the race going into G-W-C, both Montoya and second-place Harvick elected to go to pit road for fresh tires to use in the frenetic finish; they would line up sixth and seventh respectively behind Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, A.J. Allmendinger, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart when the final restart began.

But that didn’t stop Harvick from cutting through the traffic ahead of him and making the race-winning pass on his teammate Burton (who was on older tires) with one and a half laps remaining.

“Sprint Cup racing is something where you have to take chances, and the guys that stayed out took chances, and we had to take chances,” Harvick told Fox Sports of the call to get new Goodyears with four to go. “We’ve been beat by tires a couple of times this year and I thought it was the right thing to do. [Crew chief] Gil [Martin] did the right call and it all worked out.”

Clint Bowyer led 113 laps on the night, but wound up settling for a runner-up finish ahead of Joey Logano, Montoya and Burton. Edwards, pole sitter Matt Kenseth, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the Top 10.

The close racing at the end triggered a spat between Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who drove down pit road practically connected to each other after the checkered flag. The two drivers then continued their disagreement in the hauler area, where TV cameras caught them having it out verbally before walking away.

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”