Ricky Taylor battling flu before his Team Penske debut: could it impact him in Rolex 24? - MotorSportsTalk

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ricky Taylor won five races last year, five poles, the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the IMSA championship. So it seemed a little strange when he didn’t qualify Team Penske’s new Acura entry.

Turns out, Taylor is in practical quarantine with the flu.

Helio Castroneves instead qualified the car and wound up second behind Renger van der Zande, the driver who replaced Taylor when he left Wayne Taylor Racing to join the Penske operation.

“It makes sense for Ricky to qualify the car because he’s got so much experience,” Castroneves said Friday. “But he’s sick. We can’t even see him. We can only text him.”

The bug has hit several members of the Penske organization, but Taylor is the only driver so far to fall ill.

Had Taylor not been sick, he’d have qualified the Penske Acura and gone head-to-head with his former team. Taylor drove with his brother, Jordan, last year on their father’s team and the duo had a career year. When it was over, Ricky Taylor had a job offer from Roger Penske that he couldn’t refuse.

Wayne Taylor chose Dutch driver van der Zande to replace his oldest son, and the newest driver knocked Castroneves from the pole.

“When they told me I had to qualify, I knew I had to put it out front because that’s what Ricky does,” Castroneves said. “I was almost there.”

The defending race-winning Wayne Taylor team will start with the pole Saturday with van der Zande behind the wheel, while Castroneves will line up next to him for Penske.

The Penske organization did not reveal Taylor’s status for the rest of the weekend. In 2016, Jordan Taylor was suffering from mononucleosis at the Rolex and the team brought in Rubens Barichello to help ease Jordan Taylor’s driving responsibilities in the twice-round-the-clock endurance race. Jordan Taylor did drive in the event and the team finished second.

The Team Penske entry consists of Castroneves, Ricky Taylor and Graham Rahal, so unless they bring in another driver, Ricky Taylor will have to do at least one stint during the race.

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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.”