NASCAR: Kyle Larson fastest in 1st Sprint Cup practice at Bristol - MotorSportsTalk

With less than 10 minutes to go, Kyle Larson posted a lap of 131.083 miles per hour to earn top honors in this morning’s first Sprint Cup practice session at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Larson, who finished 10th at Bristol in the spring, enters this weekend having to recover from a wreck last Sunday at Michigan that knocked him off of the Chase Grid with three races to go in the regular season.

The Chip Ganassi Racing rookie is 19th in the Chase standings at 24 points behind 16th-place Greg Biffle.

“After Michigan, finishing dead last there with that blown right front, that made us stress out a lot and now we kinda really have to get a win,” Larson told Fox Sports this afternoon. “I think that’s our only shot of getting in the Chase now unless we get Top-5s in these next three [races].

“But we’ve got a fast Target Chevy here in practice, so I think this could be a place where we could get a win.”

Three of the Top 5 drivers in first practice were powered by Hendrick engines – Larson, third-place Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (130.504), and fifth-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. of Hendrick Motorsports (130.132).

Running in second behind Larson was the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Denny Hamlin (130.557). A second Toyota driver, Michael Waltrip Racing’s Brian Vickers, wound up fourth on the speed charts (130.495).

Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson acknowledged this week that his company is trying to make up a power deficit before the Chase, but power should not matter so much this weekend at Bristol’s half-mile.

Aric Almirola of Richard Petty Motorsports was the fastest Ford in sixth (130.132). Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Bristol spring race winner Carl Edwards, and Jamie McMurray rounded out the Top 10 drivers.

Final Sprint Cup practice is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. ET.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Bristol – First Practice Times

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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.”