Diogo Pinto extends INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series championship lead with first win of 2024 at Laguna Seca

With WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca scheduled as the last road race on the inaugural 2024 INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series calendar, it was seemingly the last chance for Team Redline to stretch their muscles—and their points lead—with the final two races of the season falling on oval tracks.

Diogo Pinto entered Laguna Seca as the points leader, by only three points over PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype’s Philip Kraus (a two-time oval winner this season) and six points over his Team Redline teammate Edoardo Leo (a two-time road winner this season). Pinto’s consistency, with six-straight top-10 finishes to open the season, allowed for his lead to exist, but he was missing one key element that he would surely need to be able to fend off both Kraus and Leo in this final stretch—a race win.

On Thursday night, Pinto put on a championship-worthy performance at Laguna Seca, winning for the first time in the 2024 season to extend his points lead to 35 over Leo and 43 over Kraus. “At this stage of the championship, it’s what I needed,” Pinto said post-race about finally getting into victory lane. “I knew that anything other than a win would be really, really bad for me for the last rounds, because they’re ovals. I’m happy with the win. I think I should have had the pole as well for the extra points, but yeah, this is what I needed.”

THE RACE

Pinto missed the pole position by 0.131 seconds, qualifying fourth behind Drago Racing’s José Soria and the Coanda Esports duo of Michael Romanidis and Jordan Caruso. On the initial start, Pinto jumped the two Coanda cars on the Alternate red-walled tire strategy, ultimately taking control on the third lap from Soria. Another one of Pinto’s teammates, Florian Lebigre, also had the red-walled Alternate tires, as did Drago Racing’s David Toth, and by the sixth lap, they were in the top-three.

In the mid-pack, Leo took his start from the 11th position while Kraus was mired back in 14th. The opening lap would be mirrors of one another, as Leo moved methodically up the running order while Kraus struggled to find early pace. Eventually, in the middle of the lap as Kraus was about to lose another spot to Coanda Esports’ Elliott Vayron, down in 18th, Kraus goosed the throttle and slid around the corner, making contact with Vayron.

As Kraus was forced into the dirt, Vayron’s IR-18 got out of control and collected both Apex Racing Academy’s Dan Amor and Powerslide Motorsports’ Jeff Drake. While Kraus would continue on, his hole would be deeper to dig out of for the rest of the night.

With the tire compounds in play, it didn’t look as though these red-walled alternates fell off too hard in half the run, allowing for those on the strategy to pit around halfway. It was telling when both the Drago Racing teammates of Toth and Soria, in third and fourth and on different strategies, both pitted on the midway lap to swap compounds. Pinto pitted at the end of the 20th lap, handing the lead to Coanda Esports’ Michele Costantini for three laps, but took back control on Lap 24.

Back in Leo’s part of the pack, he entered the pits in seventh but returned through the cycle down in ninth. While he would gain a spot on the ailing Caruso before the end of the event, Leo ultimately lost spots to both Drago Racing’s Ricardo Rico and Apex Racing Team’s Luke McKeown, resulting in an eighth place finish.

As for Kraus, his fight back up the order got him to 15th taking the white flag. On the final corner of the final lap, Kraus dove it inside of Coanda Esports’ Michael Janney, and it didn’t stick. Instead of taking 15th, Kraus fell down to cross the line in 17th, losing two more points to Pinto in the process.

Pinto, meanwhile, was able to cruise to victory, winning by over six seconds for his first win of the season in an extremely pivotal week.

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series results from Race #8 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca are as follows:

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series points after Race #8 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca are as follows:

1. Diogo C. Pinto, 257
2. Edoardo Leo, 222
3. Philip Kraus, 214
4. Gustavo Ariel, 204
5. Florian Lebigre, 188
6. Sam Kuitert, 177
7. Luke McKeown, 172
8. Michael Romanidis, 172
9. Robert Maleczka III, 171
10. Cooper Webster, 167

There are no more chances to earn points at road courses for the rest of the 2024 season. Of Pinto’s 257 points accrued thus far, 186 of them came from the five road races, 34 more points than the second-most, Gustavo Ariel, who collected 152. Luke McKeown (144), Edoardo Leo (142), and Florian Lebigre (136) rounded out the top-five of points earned on the road this year. That could be the difference in deciding the title this year.

Kraus only collected 79 points on the road of his 214 points so far. When you flip the script, means that he’s scored 135 points on the oval in three races, an average of 45 points per round, with a potential to score up to 243 points on ovals alone if he wins out the rest of the season from the pole with the most laps led.

Pinto has 71 points on the ovals, an average of just under 24 points per round. Leo’s, for comparison, has 80 oval points, a slightly better average of just under 27 points. These final two races will be interesting to see if Pinto can improve on that average to maintain the title lead, or if Leo or Kraus can overcome the overall gap to take the title for their own.

Next up on the schedule is the penultimate race of the season, a 120-lap battle at the fan voted oval track, The Milwaukee Mile. If this vote went in the favor of either of the road courses it was up against, it wouldn’t be too bold to say that this championship would be basically over. However, with two ovals now to close out the season, it is anyone’s guess as to how this all plays out.

The broadcast for Milwaukee goes live at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 14th, 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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