Milwaukee IndyFest goes down smoothly, drama-free for IndyCar

2 Comments

Something weird happened at the IZOD IndyCar Series’ weekend at The Milwaukee Mile. It was just a pure race that went down as smooth as a cold Spotted Cow.

IndyCar is in a mad stretch of six races in five weekends. The Indianapolis 500 kicked it off, followed by the doubleheader in Detroit, the lone 1.5-miler this year in Texas, the lone one-miler in Milwaukee this weekend and next week, the 0.875-miler in Iowa.

Indy has the month-long hoopla before the race. Detroit featured something new with the doubleheader concept and a press conference discussing the “infamous aero kits.” Texas was, by most accounts including this author’s, disappointing compared to the package showcased in 2012 and, in the eyes of some, a wasted opportunity for a prime-time network broadcast.

So with this weekend’s race in Milwaukee featuring no extra drama, no sidebar press conferences or tweets and none of the drivers bitching about anything except traffic – which you’d expect given its history and tight quarters – it was a refreshing tonic from the usual madness that often comes as a side dish on an IndyCar weekend.

“To me it was typical Milwaukee. It’s all about traffic,” said Michael Andretti, event promoter and winning car owner for Ryan Hunter-Reay. “Without traffic you normally don’t have passing here. That’s been since when I started racing here. That’s what makes it exciting, is having a car that works in traffic. That’s what won the race, to be honest with you.”

“Well, certainly Milwaukee Mile always gave a fantastic race,” said runner-up and IndyCar points leader Helio Castroneves. “I don’t remember a time that there was a very difficult one. Probably a long time ago in CART times, Champ Car times.

“Right now I feel on the one-mile oval, but also the one-and-a-half-mile oval, we have a good package. We still remember like the side-by-side and things like that. Before side-by-side, it was this style of racing. I think it’s even more fun.”

“If the fans knew how hard we were having to push, they did a good job with televising it, telling the story, catching all the passes in the middle of the pack, it would look like a great race,” added his Team Penske teammate Will Power.

“I just think, like Helio said, when we used to go to Texas, it was pack racing, the leader would stay on the white line, wide open, there would be guys right behind him wide open and never pass. Is that talent?  No. Your grandma could jump in and do it.”

From an on-the-ground perspective, you can tell the effort Andretti’s Andretti Sports Marketing group has put into this race, now having had a full year to promote the event as opposed to the last-minute assembling of the 2012 race (race in June, announced in February).

A packed infield provides a ton of options for families. The racing is close and captivating from the grandstands, and translated well thanks to the broadcast effort by the entire NBC Sports Network team.

As Andretti said afterwards, those who took the weather forecast as gospel earlier in the week missed out.

“The last few days definitely hurt us with the forecast. It was a real shame because in the end, look at the sun shining,” he said. “I’m thinking it kept some people home and they’re going to be sorry they were home because it was such a great event.”

This video is no longer available. Click here to watch more NBC Sports videos!

IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024

IndyCar video game 2024
IndyCar
0 Comments

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.”