INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series | Race Preview: Barber Motorsports Park

On Thursday night, the INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series continues its inaugural 2024 season with the fourth race of the 2024 season at Barber Motorsports Park.

This next challenge for the top-33 INDYCAR competitors will be a 39-lap feature at another road course, this one in Alabama being a permanent venue, unlike Indy, which was built into the oval, and Long Beach, which races on the streets. During the Qualifying Series race here over the summer, Diogo Pinto scored the top split victory.

Each race will be broadcast live at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday nights via iRacing social channels and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES YouTube channel and website.

Last Race:

In the first oval event of the season, the oval-coded drivers reigned supreme by the end of the night. The way the cautions flew, it came down to a bit of fuel strategy, a challenge that the two leaders from Apex Racing Team—Luke McKeown and Peter Berryman—couldn’t quite conquer as their fuel levels depleted with only a handful of laps to go. This year’s iRacing Indy 500 winner, Robert Maleczka III, had the pole and was in a prime position, but his teammate at PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype, Philip Kraus, came from 17th to score his first win of the season.

Track Facts:

Built by local dairy magnate George Barber, adjacent to his world-class motorsports museum, Barber Motorsports Park includes a total of three track configurations. The track opened in 2003, and in addition to motorcycle races, is host to INDYCAR, IMSA, SCCA and AMA races, in addition to club racing weekends and vintage and historic events. Located in a heavily wooded area near Birmingham, Alabama, the Alan Wilson-designed circuit is the epitome of the modern dedicated road-racing facility, with a sinuous 2.3 mile, 16-turn course its centerpiece. The beauty of Barber Motorsports Park doesn’t end at the edge of the pavement; whimsical large-scale sculptures grace the beautifully landscaped facility, ranging from a pride of lions, Sisyphus pushing a large boulder, ants, birds, and dragonflies, to the track’s hallmark—a giant steel spider outside Turn 5.

About the Series:

The inaugural INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series season will feature a purse of $50,000 with the champion taking home $20,000 at season’s end. The 10 races scheduled include a fair mix of road courses and ovals that are often found on the real-world INDYCAR schedule. Points will now be scored based on a similar system that the real-world series uses, with 50 points going to the winner and bonus points for laps led, most laps led, and the pole award.

Next Up:

Following Barber, the fifth race of the inaugural INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series is a return trip to Indianapolis, but this time, they’ll only turn left as they race for 66 laps around the famed 2.5-mile rectangular oval in Speedway. During the Qualifying Series, Apex Racing Team’s Brandon Traino won the top split event over Team I5G’s Jacob Oster and Maleczka III. Coanda Esports’ Jordan Caruso was also an Indy winner, taking home top honors in the third split.

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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