IndyCar points leader Montoya out early with Lap 10 crash (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

Verizon IndyCar Series championship leader Juan Pablo Montoya has crashed out of the Iowa Corn 300 only 10 laps into the 300-lap race, with something apparently breaking on his car that sent him into the Turn 2 wall.

Montoya, who led Scott Dixon by 54 points going into the race, looks set to suffer his first DNF of the season in the 13th race.

The max number of points Dixon can gain on Montoya tonight is 47, if the New Zealander scored a maximum 53 points for winning the race and leading the most laps. Montoya will score six points for P24, the minimum.

It looked like apparent suspension failure as Montoya went through the corner and careened into the wall, but had not been officially determined.

Montoya’s engineer Brian Campe told NBCSN’s Jon Beekhuis that the data doesn’t come in quick enough to determine what caused the accident; the team is reviewing the situation.

“I have a little bruise to my hand. Was a little loose. I was biding my time,” Montoya told NBCSN’s Robin Miller. “Something broke as soon as I loaded up. I don’t know what happened.

“I was running high. It was way before the bump. The car just went right.

“Yeah it sucks when it’s completely out of our hands. We don’t know what happened.”

The Colombian also failed to finish last year in Iowa, which has marked his only DNF since his return to IndyCar at the start of the 2014 season.

At Lap 10, Tony Kanaan led Dixon, polesitter Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

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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.”