Josef Newgarden captures 2017 IndyCar title at Sonoma - MotorSportsTalk

SONOMA, Calif. – Josef Newgarden is the newest member of the Verizon IndyCar Series’ champion’s club, following a controlled drive to second place in today’s GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma season finale to win the 2017 series title.

Newgarden entered the race weekend with a three-point lead over Scott Dixon, and built that to four points after winning a crucial pole position on Saturday.

Now, Newgarden supplants Dixon as the most recent IndyCar champion under age 30. He’s 26 years old and Dixon was 28 in 2008, when he won his second of four career titles.

The 85-lap race at the 2.385-mile Sonoma Raceway ran without a yellow flag and Newgarden, who started on pole in the No. 2 hum by Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, was the dominant driver for most of it.

However, while Newgarden led 41 laps, he was outdone in the race by teammate and 2016 IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud, who ran a four-stop strategy to perfection in his No. 1 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet to push harder throughout the race. The team ran three sets of Firestone red alternate tires.

Pagenaud made his final stop later in the race and then emerged ahead of Newgarden once he did. Newgarden attempted a pass at the Turn 7 hairpin, to the inside of the tight right-hander, but was not able to get past.

Pagenaud then had to encounter slower traffic in the final seven laps, which bunched the field up, and brought Newgarden within a few tenths of a second.

While the race was Pagenaud’s, his second of the year in the No. 1 car, he now loses his No. 1 banner on the car to Newgarden, who brought it home in second place.

Unofficial results are below.

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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.”