Michele Costantini leads every lap at Milwaukee; Diogo Pinto closes in on INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series title

Those who tuned in for a battle for the win at The Milwaukee Mile on Thursday night were likely disappointed to see Coanda Esports’ Michele Costantini completely dominate the ninth round of the 2024 INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series season. Costantini sorely needed the boost after a season of disappointments, often finding trouble not of his doing while competing near the top of the boards consistently. At Milwaukee, Costantini took the pole and never surrendered the top spot, leading all 120 laps en route to his first victory in the series.

“What a season it’s been,” Costantini said post-race. “How relieved I am to get to victory lane once this season. I have worked very, very hard this week. I feel like we had a really good car, but honestly, it just feels so good after such a terrible season… I have to thank everyone on the team and everyone else who supported me and helped me throughout this season and prior.”

Behind Costantini’s dominance, his teammate Jordan Caruso managed to finish second, up one spot from where he started. Apex Racing Team’s Luke McKeown started second and finished third, with Team Redline’s Florian Lebigre and Apex Racing Academy’s Dan Amor rounding out the top-five. Behind the top-five, however, the real action was going down, and a championship was nearly decided after 120 laps of nail-biting racing among Team Redline’s Diogo Pinto and PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype’s Philip Kraus, the stars of the Thursday night show.

THE RACE

To clinch the championship one race early, Pinto needed to be 50 points ahead of the rest of the field. Anyone within 49 points would still be eligible to win it next week at Nashville Superspeedway in the perfect conditions. Pinto’s night didn’t start as high as he would have liked, however, capturing the 16th best time in qualifying, right behind his closest championship rival, teammate Edoardo Leo.

Leo entered the night 35 points back, second in the championship. His average finish on ovals tended to be better than Pinto, but despite qualifying adding to that claim, Leo didn’t have the same race pace as the points leader.

The third man in the race for the championship already had two oval wins coming in, but following some late race shenanigans at Laguna Seca last week, Kraus was forced out of qualifying, instead starting in 26th with a lot of ground to make up to even stay in the fight for another week.

Costantini brought the field to the green, but only a few laps in, things got hectic in the back of the field. Satellite Racing’s Adam Crane and the two Williams Esports entries of Jaden Munoz and Sota Muto got together racing for 22nd—right in front of Kraus. While the trio wrecked up into the outside wall, Kraus made such an evasive maneuver that sent him into a slide and into the outside wall, causing damage to his front wing. An early setback, but Kraus was still in the fight.

Pinto, meanwhile, had worked his way up a few spot while Leo was holding pace. On the ensuing restart, Pinto moved his way up into 11th while Leo maintained in 15th. Kraus, meanwhile, was picking off cars one-by-one, doing his best to stay careful with the others around him. When he got to Leo’s rear wing, his progression stopped. Leo put on a masterclass in defense while three cars ahead of him were also dancing amongst themselves.

It came to a point on Lap 49, when Coanda Esports’ Michael Janney, Tamas Setups’ Tamas Simon, XR Racing Engineering’s Xavi Ros, and Leo all collided on the frontstretch. Kraus navigated the wreckage and all of a sudden, Pinto and Kraus were nose to tail in 11th and 12th. The field came down for service, good to make it to the end from there, and got the restart just before halfway.

Position jockeying would continue through the remainder of the race. Kraus was in a sea of Team Redline, with Pinto, Sam Kuitert, and Gustavo Ariel all around him. They put their cars in precarious positions so that Kraus couldn’t get the entry or exit of the corner that he wanted. It came to a head on Lap 67 when Pinto took a look on Kraus entering Turn 3, with Drago Racing’s Ricardo Rico already outside of the #99. Rico went around after contact and collected one of the other PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype machines, Jason Brophy, but Kraus was able to continue.

It didn’t stop there. In a Team Redline sandwich, Kraus attempted to pass Kuitert, but Pinto ultimately managed to get by them both for ninth. Kraus picked off Kuitert a few laps later, then a few laps after that, he finally cleared Pinto and set sail, but perhaps too late to make any headway on the top of the leaderboard without yellow intervention.

Kraus caught his teammate, Robert Maleczka III, who was racing Coanda Esports’ Elliott Vayron for sixth. He managed to get by, but without a yellow flag, sixth would be the best he could muster after starting 26th. Kraus would need to hope that Pinto started to fall off behind him to cut down some of that lead.

On the contrary, Pinto picked up the pace, catching the Vayron-Maleczka battle with a couple of laps to go. Vayron lost part of the wing on his nose, forcing him out of the fight to struggle home to finish 12th. Pinto, not content with eighth, managed to work over Maleczka and at the line, brought home seventh. The points loss was minimal, and the 43 points between the two only shrunk to 41 when it was all said and over with.

Costantini was untouchable, though, and won by over a second without anything going wrong for once this season.

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series results from Race #9 at The Milwaukee Mile are as follows:

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series points after Race #9 at The Milwaukee Mile are as follows:

1. Diogo C. Pinto, 283
2. Philip Kraus, 242
3. Edoardo Leo, 234
   ————————
4. Gustavo Ariel, 223
5. Florian Lebigre, 220
6. Luke McKeown, 207
7. Sam Kuitert, 199
8. Robert Maleczka III, 195
9. Michele Costantini, 188
10. David Toth, 177

If Diogo Pinto finishes 16th or better at Nashville Superspeedway next week, he will claim the championship no matter what Philip Kraus does. Edoardo Leo stays alive but just barely. With a 49-point deficit, Leo would need to get the pole and lead the most laps, preventing Pinto from leading a single lap, and Pinto would need to finish 25th or worse. They would tie in that instance, and that would be enough for Leo to claim a tiebreaker.

Outside of the top-three, Costantini was able to break into the top-10 with the victory, still with the potential to get as high as third in the standings with another good day at Nashville in a week’s time. The race for 12th place is also on, with relegation looming for those below that mark. Jordan Caruso moves into that spot, just one point ahead of Team Redline’s Cooper Webster.

PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype’s Josh Chin, 22nd in points, is 49 points behind Caruso, making him the last potential driver that could get to 12th. The top-four in points, which includes Gustavo Ariel in fourth, are all locked into finishing above the relegation line.

It will all come down to a 114-lap battle at Nashville Superspeedway for all the marbles. The broadcast for the finale at Nashville goes live at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 21st, on all iRacing social channels and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES YouTube channel and website.

For more information on the INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series, visit www.iracing.com/indycar-esports/. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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