Team Penske enters Petit Le Mans following months of buildup - MotorSportsTalk

Team Penske will make its return to sports car racing in Motul Petit Le Mans next week, as the trio of Juan Pablo Montoya, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud will be in action in a one-off Oreca 07 Gibson.

The run in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale comes as preparation and following months of discussion ahead of the team’s full-time bow next year with its Acura ARX-05 DPi. That car has tested so far but was not going to be the one utilized next week.

This will be Penske’s first sports car race since its GRAND-AM Rolex Series season in 2009, and the team last ran Petit Le Mans in 2008.

BRASELTON, GA – OCTOBER 04: Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves (C) drivers the #5 LMP2 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder celebrate with second place team mates Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas (L) and third place Sascha Maassen, Emmanuel Collard and Patrick Long (R) after winning the LMP2 Class during the American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans on October 4, 2008 at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia (Photo by Darrell Ingham/Getty Images)

Somewhat surprisingly this will be Montoya’s Petit Le Mans debut, while Castroneves is a past winner in a Penske Porsche RS Spyder in 2008 (above) and Pagenaud has a wealth of experience in the race in Acura and HPD prototypes, and raced last year with Whelen Engineering Racing and co-drivers Dane Cameron and Eric Curran in the Action Express Racing team’s Corvette DP.

This run comes after Castroneves sustained an accident last week in testing at Road Atlanta, and meant the team’s chassis got rebuilt.

“We’ve had this race on our radar for some time, but we wanted to wait until we were able to get our drivers some testing at Road Atlanta prior to committing, as it is a very fast track and these cars are very different to drive from an IndyCar,” said Team Penske President Tim Cindric.

“Unfortunately, we confirmed this the hard way as we have had to totally rebuild our car after an incident during testing last week. ORECA have bent over backwards to be sure we receive everything we need as they understand the importance of this race as our team prepares for the debut of our Acura ARX-05s at the Daytona 24.

“Juan has participated in the majority of our prototype tests since we announced him as one of our full-time Acura drivers. We would also like to involve our other drivers in the program whenever possible. Helio and Simon have good experience in prototypes at Road Atlanta, so they seem like a natural fit to participate in the Petit for us.”

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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.”