Power sweeps Barber test for second year in a row - MotorSportsTalk

Maybe they oughta re-name the joint Power Motorsports Park.

Will Power followed up his Monday pace-setting with the fastest time both on Tuesday and of the week for the Verizon IndyCar Series’ two-day test at Barber Motorsports Park. His best lap in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet on Tuesday was 1:07.0608, set on his 41st of 62 laps.

Power, now in five years with Team Penske at Barber, has this record: the 2010 and 2011 poles, the 2011 and 2012 race wins, and a sweep of both preseason test sessions in 2013 and 2014 at the 2.38-mile road course in Birmingham, Ala.

Unlike on Monday though, Power had competition from other teams in the top three. Justin Wilson, who’s gotten in a substantial amount of seat time this winter, took his No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda up to second at 1:07.0646, a mere 0.0038 of a second off the pace.

With defending series champion Scott Dixon also within a tenth, at 1:07.0791 in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, the top of the field was tightly bunched.

In truth, the whole field was. Barely more than 1.3 seconds covered Power up front to former teammate Oriol Servia, now with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 22nd and last at 1:08.3943.

Takuma Sato again impressed in fourth for A.J. Foyt Racing, with Ryan Briscoe fifth in the NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing entry.

Bryan Herta Autosport’s Jack Hawksworth was best of the three rookies in 12th, three tenths clear of Carlos Munoz (Andretti Autosport) in 16th and six tenths up on Mikhail Aleshin (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) in 20th. Considering Hawksworth was a late add to the No. 98 Honda, getting within six tenths of Power was a rather good day’s work.

INDYCAR OPEN TEST – TUESDAY TIMES

INDYCAR OPEN TEST – COMBINED TIMES (MON./TUES.)

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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.”