Ty Dillon leads final practice at Indy for Nationwide - MotorSportsTalk

Speeds dropped in this morning’s final NASCAR Nationwide Series practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Ty Dillon’s overall pace remained stout.

Dillon, who was second-quickest behind David Ragan in first practice, moved up to the top spot in “Happy Hour” with a lap of 180.245 mph in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

That lap was a bit slower than the 180.930 mph that he posted in the previous session.

His RCR teammate, Brian Scott, was second-quickest in final practice after posting a lap of 178.586 mph in his No. 2 Chevy.

After Scott won last week’s Dash4Cash bonus at Chicagoland, he and Dillon are among the four drivers competing for the third $100,000 D4C prize in this Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 at IMS.

Chicagoland race winner Chase Elliott (13th in final practice) and Trevor Bayne (ninth) will also be in the D4C at Indy.

Following Scott in final practice was defending race winner Kyle Busch, who clocked in third with his lap of 178.338 mph in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Fellow Sprint Cup stars Kevin Harvick (178.303) and Matt Kenseth (177.746) followed in fourth and fifth, respectively, to complete the Top 5.

Positions 6-10 were filled by Joey Logano, Paul Menard, Regan Smith, Bayne, and Ragan. Running the most laps in final practice were Ragan and rookie driver Ryan Reed, who each posted 22 laps in the session; Reed missed much of Practice 1 after hitting the Turn 2 SAFER early on.

Qualifying for tomorrow’s 250-miler around the world’s greatest racecourse is set for 12:10 p.m. ET, followed later that afternoon by the race itself at 4:30 p.m. ET.

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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.”