Pagenaud, Penske seek breakthrough in Iowa - MotorSportsTalk

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) Every year, Team Penske arrives in Iowa with a host of championship-contending drivers and leaves without a win.

The 10th edition of the IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway could be Penske’s best shot at breaking through.

The grueling demands of Iowa’s 0.875-mile bull ring typically rewards the most skilled drivers. Penske has plenty of those, as Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves and Will Power entered the weekend first, second and third in the point standings.

Pagenaud will start Sunday’s race from the pole, followed by Josef Newgarden, Castroneves, Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball.

Still, Penske has lagged far behind Andretti Autosport, winner of the last six races and seven of nine overall on IndyCar’s shortest track.

“We’ve been close many times,” said Castroneves, winless in Iowa despite two poles and five starts on the front row. “The good news is Team Penske is one, two, three, and that’s our goal to keep going all the way to the end of the season. But we have a big test here.”

Andretti could use another strong showing in Iowa to push at least one of its drivers into championship contention.

Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi leads the way for the team in 10th, just one point ahead of teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Hunter-Reay has won the last two races in Iowa. Last season’s victory helped turn a miserable season into a decent one as Hunter-Reay went on to win at Pocono and finish sixth in the standings.

Hunter-Reay has also finished in the top four in each of his last two races.

But replicating his previous success here might be tough.

Hunter-Reay had a miserable qualifying session and will start 20th out of 22 cars. Although no driver has ever won from the pole in Iowa, no one has taken first after starting from so far behind either.

“It doesn’t really change my mentality at all. Every year I have to come back and work just as hard to get it done. Seems like it gets harder and harder every year, actually,” Hunter-Reay said.

Perhaps Sunday will provide Newgarden an opportunity to thrust himself into the championship conversation. Newgarden took second behind Hunter-Reay in 2014 and 2015, and he’ll start on the front row at Iowa for the first time all season.

“Yeah, it’s always tough. I mean, when you qualify second you think `Ah!’ It’s just really hard to qualify second. You almost wish you qualified fifth or something. That sounds really stupid, but it’s always tough; we needed that last little bit,” Newgarden said. “But it’s nothing to complain about. I think we have fast cars.”

Should Penske fail to win yet again in Iowa this weekend, it can take solace in the fact its drivers will get at least two more chances here.

Iowa Speedway announced Saturday that it has extended its agreement with IndyCar through 2018.

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.”