Red flag: Kenseth-Logano tangle leads to 9-car wreck in Sprint Unlimited; Stenhouse slams into Danica Patrick - MotorSportsTalk

A major wreck has brought out a race-stopping red flag in the second segment of Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway.

After Terry Labonte retired midway through the 30-lap first segment and Jimmie Johnson’s night came to an end in a single-car wreck on the last lap of the same segment, there were only 16 cars remaining for the second segment.

There were nine cars that were involved in the wreck on Lap 6 of the second segment, which was slated to be 25 laps. Drivers involved were Danica Patrick, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch.

It appeared Kenseth tried to go to the bottom of the track, but caught the front end of Logano’s and went spinning.

“I was just easing my way down there and had no idea Joey was that close to me and our cars got hooked together,” Kenseth said. “I feel bad all those cars got wrecked. It’s not the way you want to start a season, for sure.”

All four Stewart Haas Racing drivers – Stewart, Patrick, Busch and Harvick – were involved in the wreck. Stewart, in his first race since suffering multiple fractures to his right leg in a sprint car crash August 5, came out of his wrecked car slowly but appeared uninjured.

“We just needed a couple inches here or there and probably would have gotten through it,” Stewart said after leaving the infield care center. “I was a little nervous at all. It doesn’t feel bad at all. I don’t have any pain. We’ll see what happens when the adrenaline wears off, but so far I feel really good and really happy about it.”

Ironically, Stenhouse, who is dating Patrick, plowed into the side of her car, who had escaped unscathed up to that point. It was speculated that Stenhouse may have lost his brakes or steering, or possibly just could not see where his car was going due to the resulting front end damage, leading up to Stenhouse plowing into the left side of Patrick’s car.

“I tried to look over the hood and all of a sudden hit something really hard, and obviously it was her, sitting sideways and I just really destroyed her car,” Stenhouse said of Patrick. “She’d have been alright if I hadn’t it her, so that’s not good.”

Patrick seemed to take the crash in stride: “I got hit by my boyfriend. What a bummer, right? But he said his hood was up and couldn’t see anything. Not the way I wanted (the race) to go at all.”

The second segment restarted after about a 25-minute stoppage with only nine cars — half of the original 18-driver field.

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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.”