Martin Truex wins at Sonoma, breaks 218-race winless streak - MotorSportsTalk

Having won Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, maybe NASCAR driver Martin Truex Jr. might start thinking about competing in the 2014 Formula One race that’s to be held in his native New Jersey.

After all, if he can conquer the 12-turn, 1.99-mile road course at Sonoma, running an F1 race in his home state might be a natural evolution.

Truex proved that road course winners do come from Joy-zee with a dominating performance in Sunday’s Sprint Cup event (led 51 of 110 laps), snapping a 218-race winless streak for the Mayetta, N.J. native.

Truex was clearly emotional when interviewed by TNT in victory lane after the race, several times brushing back tears and his voice cracking at times. It was also an early birthday present to himself: he turns 33 on June 29.

“I can’t put it into words,” Truex told TNT. “The team, they’re just phenomenal. We went 200-plus races without a win. It feels damn good.”

In seven previous starts at Sonoma, Truex’s best finish was eighth in 2011. Four of his other starts there resulted in finishes of 20th or lower, including 22nd in last year’s race.

Ironically, Truex becomes the ninth consecutive first-time road course winner at Sonoma.

It was only the second-ever Cup win for Truex, whose first win came at his “home track,” Dover International Speedway, in 2007.

Since then, the two-time Nationwide Series champion (2004 and 2005) switched teams, moving from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Michael Waltrip Racing in 2010.

Sunday’s win makes it two wins in a row at Sonoma for Michael Waltrip Racing. Teammate Clint Bowyer won last year’s race. It was also MWR’s first win as an organization in 2013.

In 16 races thus far this season, Truex has four top-five finishes including Sunday’s win and two other top-10 showings.

But perhaps the best news of all for Truex and his fans is that with the win, he moved back into the top 10 in the Sprint Cup standings.

There are 10 more races remaining for him to solidify his position in the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. If he does make the Chase, it would be only the third time Truex has done so in his Cup career (2007 and 2012).

“Today was just our day,” Truex said. “It was just our time and the car was flawless. We’re going to get a bunch of them now, I can tell you that.”

For his sake, let’s hope that’s the case. He said something similar about winning a bunch of races after his first win at Dover – and then it took six years before he’d get his next one.

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.”