Red Bull GRC: Team seasons to date heading to Las Vegas - MotorSportsTalk

LAS VEGAS – The Red Bull Global Rallycross season concludes this week in Las Vegas, bringing to an end a season that has stretched just over five months since the opening round in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. at the end of May.

Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross will win the Supercars driver’s championship, with Scott Speed and Tanner Foust the only two drivers mathematically eligible to win the title.

Here’s theirs, and the rest of the teams’ seasons-to-date heading into the final round:

VOLKSWAGEN ANDRETTI RALLYCROSS

41-Scott Speed (1st, 412 points, two wins), 34-Tanner Foust (2nd, 376, three)

In the team’s first full season with the VW Beetle, they’ve found consistency to match pace, particularly in the second half of the season. Of the team’s five wins in the previous 11 races this year, the last four have come consecutively at the Los Angeles (Speed) and Barbados (Foust) doubleheaders. Foust can overtake Speed to win his third GRC title but he’ll need a bit of help to do so.

OLSBERGS MSE

93-Sebastian Eriksson (3rd, 351, one), 31-Joni Wiman (8th, 316, best finish third)

The veteran Ford Fiesta squad hasn’t quite dominated this year. Eriksson has been a revelation with a win earlier this year in Daytona, while Wiman heads into his final race as defending champion, still in search of his first career Supercars final win.

SH RALLYCROSS

07-Nelson Piquet Jr. (4th, 351, one)

Piquet finally broke through in Washington, D.C. for his first GRC win of his career but has endured a roller-coaster season. Fifth and third in Barbados marked the first time he banked back-to-back top-fives all year.

HOONIGAN RACING DIVISION

43-Ken Block (5th, 338, three)

Block started hot with three wins in the first five finals, but has been in a mini-slump since Detroit race two. He hasn’t banked a podium since D.C. and has failed to advance to the finals in two of the last four races.

BRYAN HERTA RALLYSPORT

18-Patrik Sandell (6th, 326, one), 14-Austin Dyne (9th, 255, best finish second)

Sandell has been fast but unlucky for most of the season, while Dyne’s quick start has perhaps inadvertently coincided with the change in livery from a primarily yellow, orange and green Castrol GTX MAGNATEC livery to a black, Cuttwood e-liquid livery. Herta’s team concludes its first season in the series this week.

CHIP GANASSI RACING

00-Steve Arpin (7th, 318, best finish third), 38-Brian Deegan (10th, 195, best finish second)

CGR looks to conclude its first season in GRC with its first win. Arpin seeks first podium since Daytona, while Deegan was second in L.A. race two.

SUBARU RALLY TEAM USA

11-Sverre Isachsen (11th, 133, best finish fourth), 81-Bucky Lasek (12th, 71, best finish, seventh), 75-David Higgins (no final round)

Nightmare season for Subaru has included a couple missed rounds and only a handful of final round appearances, with no podiums. Three-car lineup hopes to play spoiler in Las Vegas.

Pat Moro (No. 59 PMR Motorsports Chevrolet Sonic) rounds out the field of 14 Supercars in Las Vegas, and like Higgins, seeks to make his first final round appearance in Vegas.

2014 at LAS VEGAS

Ken Block concluded the 2014 season with a win, while Joni Wiman emerged at the head of a several-driver scrap to secure the 2014 Red Bull Global Rallycross Supercars championship (Wiman reflected on the season and what’s next after the fact).

FINAL RESULTS

43-Ken Block
31-Joni Wiman
81-Bucky Lasek
77-Scott Speed
11-Sverre Isachsen
34-Tanner Foust
27-Emma Gilmour
00-Steve Arpin
38-Brian Deegan
18-Patrick Sandell

LCQ RESULTS

11-Sverre Isachsen
38-Brian Deegan
34-Tanner Foust
27-Emma Gilmour
59-Pat Moro
14-Austin Dyne
67-Rhys Millen
07-Nelson Piquet Jr.

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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.”