Jeff Gordon: Excited not just for Kansas, but rest of the season - MotorSportsTalk

It took an 11th – or 13th – hour adjustment to get Jeff Gordon into the 2013 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, but given he and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports’ team’s success this season, it’s only a matter of time before he eventually breaks through for his first win of the year.

The series points leader has starred throughout most of the year, but late-race bad luck has cost him shots at at least two races.

Heading into Kansas this weekend, where Gordon won the track’s first two races in 2001 and 2002, Gordon’s optimistic.

“I’m excited to get there and see what the track has to offer, as well as how the new ride heights and downforce will play out this year,” he said in a Wednesday teleconference. “We’ve excelled at a lot of tracks. Kansas has always been one of my favorites, although it moved further down on the repave, but it ages, go through the winter and gets back to the Kansas. The transitions are still there. The variable banking is always a plus.”

Gordon, who continues to search for his elusive fifth championship, added that this has been one of the best starts he’s ever had to a season.

“I know that time is running short, but I’m not concerned about it,” he said. “I have accomplished more than I ever thought. We have such a great race car and race team this year. We’re off to a great start. We’re healthy, and in good shape.”

“What I’m excited about is that we have such a great race team. We’ve had such competitive cars. Some we unload and we’re fast, others we really have to work at it.”

Follow @TonyDiZinno

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.”