Norris, Mostert confirmed for IndyCar Esports race at COTA

Norris will drive the fourth Arrow McLaren SP entry, the #04 IndyCar Provisional car, while Mostert will be taking over the #98 Andretti Herta Autosport entry from Marco Andretti.

Andretti took part in the Michigan and Motegi rounds, but missed the two road courses that opened the season, at Watkins Glen and Barber Motorsports Park, where the #98 was driven by Scott Speed.

Mostert, meanwhile, makes it two Supercars drivers, along with Scott McLaughlin, to take part in the race which for the first time won’t feature a NASCAR star. Jimmie Johnson competed in the first two events, while Dale Earnhardt raced at Michigan and Kyle Busch ran Motegi.

2015 Lights champ and former Ed Carpenter Racing driver Pigot, who signed a part-time deal with a new team for 2020 – Rahal Letterman Lanigan with Citrone/Buhl Autosport Honda – will also be making his series debut.

That makes it three RLLR-affiliated cars in the field, as for only the second time Takuma Sato will join fulltime teammate Graham Rahal on the grid.

The AutoNation IndyCar Challenge at Circuit of The Americas will feature all the winners so far in this Esports championship – Sage Karam of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Glen winner) plus Team Penske’s McLaughlin (Barber winner) and reigning Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud (victor at both Michigan and Motegi).

The fuel window for this 32-lap race is approximately 15 to 16 laps. But it should be a one-stop race due to a competition caution period on Lap 12, a feature carried over from Round 2 on the road course at Barber that bunched the field and increased and intensified the wheel-to-wheel action. On that occasion, however, McLaughlin made two stops – a move crucial to his defeat of teammate Will Power.

The race at the virtual 3.427-mile COTA begins at 2.30pm ET on Saturday and will be televised live on NBCSN.