JR Hildebrand sustains hand injury at end of Long Beach race (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

LONG BEACH, Calif. – A seemingly innocuous bit of contact between Mikhail Aleshin and JR Hildebrand on the 85th and final lap of today’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the second race of the Verizon IndyCar Series season, has left Hildebrand with a broken bone in his left hand and not yet cleared to drive.

Aleshin and Hildebrand collided and it knocked the Sausalito, Calif. native, back for his first full season in the series for the first time since 2012, into the runoff. Hildebrand’s car got airborne briefly when trying to overtake Aleshin, and then slid into the runoff.

Hildebrand, driver of the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Services Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing retired from the race at that point and Aleshin was docked one position for blocking.

In a statement, INDYCAR medical director Dr. Geoffrey Billows said Hildebrand will be re-evaluated upon his return to Indianapolis this week and has not been cleared to drive.

“At the end of the race, we all were bunched back up because of that last yellow,” Hildebrand explained. “I was on reds and had a little bit for at least the handful of cars in front of us. On the last lap, I was making a move on Mikhail Aleshin and I could tell he was struggling.

“I was out of push-to-pass so I was trying to make a proper, full-out pass down he front straightaway. He had been starting to move over, not a major blocking maneuver but enough to assert his line. He hit the brake a lot earlier than I was expecting and I ended up running into the back of him.

“In doing so, it ripped the steering wheel from my hand and I ended up tweaking it. At the end of the day, to come home with an 11th place finish isn’t terrible. It is a bummer though as we were certainly on our way to finishing in the Top 10 and now we are in a bit of a jam going forward. Hopefully I can get back to it here before the next race.”

The contact was Aleshin’s second of the day, the first of which occurred with Tony Kanaan and left the Brazilian with a flat left rear tire.

A less than pleased Kanaan took to Twitter shortly thereafter, as this was his second contact with Aleshin in as many races.

Getting hit by the same guy 2 races in a row it's getting old.

— Tony Kanaan (@TonyKanaan) April 10, 2017

Follow @TonyDiZinno

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.”