Coke Zero 400: Tony Stewart, Dale Jr. involved in 16-car crash at Lap 21 (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

Multiple contenders have been taken out in a major crash on Lap 21 of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

As the field exited Turn 4, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose and Jeff Gordon behind him appeared to get loose as well. Gordon then got into and turned around Tony Stewart, with a sizable portion of the field collected in the aftermath.

Also among those involved in the accident were Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Kyle Larson, A.J. Allmendinger, Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Carl Edwards.

After being released from the infield care center, Stewart was understandably in an annoyed mood.

“We’re a quarter of a lap away from getting a competition caution, and Stenhouse is going to be a hero,” Stewart told TNT. “I don’t know. I don’t know what happened to him there, but that took out a bunch of good cars for no reason.

“…No matter what I say right now, somebody’s going to be mad and somebody’s going to disagree with it. But I think it’s a pretty dumb excuse to have the caution come out 500 yards too early.”

Stenhouse indicated in his comments that Bobby Labonte pulling up ahead of him caused his own car to get loose out of Turn 4.

“We had a good head of steam run going towards the lead there and the 33 [Bobby Labonte] pulled up in front of us, slowed us a little bit,” he said. “Got a little bit loose off the corner, got it saved and was going straight for a little bit.

“And then it looked like the 24 [Gordon] kind of checked up and moved down, maybe thought I was gonna spin it out, and got into the outside of the 14 [Stewart] there and turned him around.”

The green flag came back out at Lap 28 following the clean-up. 34 cars are now currently on the lead lap.

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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.”