Justin Wilson officially back at Dale Coyne Racing for 2014 - MotorSportsTalk

Justin Wilson announced Wednesday he will return to Dale Coyne Racing for his third consecutive IndyCar Series season with the team, after returning to the squad in 2012. The 2014 season will mark his 11th straight year in the top level of North American open-wheel racing since his debut in 2004, a year after his single season in Formula One.

Wilson made the announcement during a series conference call. The team is yet to make a formal announcement, but with limited openings elsewhere on the grid, Wilson’s uncanny ability to upset the bigger teams will likely be on display once more in 2014.

“I was waiting to see if Dale would be taking up my option; we’re trying to make the necessary improvements,” said Wilson, who finished sixth in the 2013 points and likely would have been higher had he not had an accident in the season finale at Fontana.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions. He’s trying to be more consistent to make things easier,” he added. “We had some good performances last year, and feel we need to work on some consistency, in every aspect. The other teams have a couple more people, and can analyze that.”

Wilson is fully recovered from his injuries, resumed training and racing in this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with Michael Shank Racing. He’ll co-drive with the same trio he won overall in 2012, AJ Allmendinger, Ozz Negri and John Pew.

Additionally, Wilson confirmed Michael Cannon will work as his race engineer. Cannon engineered E.J. Viso’s fourth Andretti Autosport entry in 2013, and shifts to his sixth different team in five seasons (2010 HVM Racing with Simona de Silvestro, 2011 KV Racing Technology with Tony Kanaan, 2012 part-time with Ed Carpenter Racing and Carpenter, also was with Dragon Racing at Sonoma).

No timeframe was determined on figuring out who may slot in as Wilson’s teammate. Wilson had five different teammates in 2013 (Ana Beatriz, Pippa Mann, Mike Conway, Stefan Wilson, James Davison) and told MotorSportsTalk he’d like to have “just one teammate” if possible this year.

The team is likely to have its first test of the new year on February 3 at Sebring.

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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.”