Luke McKeown takes first career INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series win at Barber Motorsports Park

In the fourth race of the inaugural INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series season at Barber Motorsports Park on Thursday night, a fourth different winner emerged in Apex Racing Team’s Luke McKeown. Nearly winning a week ago at Iowa before running out of fuel prematurely, McKeown redeemed himself by playing the tire strategies right, utilizing the Alternate and Primary tire compounds in the ideal order to score his first win of the season.

“Iowa was far from ideal,” McKeown said post-race. “It was lack of experience on the ovals… but we knew we had decent pace coming into here. It felt good in the Qualifying Series. It feels nice to get a win under my belt, and I’m sure there will be more to come.” The victory moves McKeown up to second in the standings, tied with Team Redline’s Diogo Pinto, now only 24 points behind Webster for the top spot.

On the start, McKeown took the green in fourth, and was quickly able to get past the Coanda Esports trio ahead of him—Michele Costantini, Elliott Vayron, and pole sitter Jordan Caruso. The top-seven starters opted on starting on the Alternate, red-walled tires, while the majority of the field took on the Primary, black-walled tires. Alternates would be faster earlier in the run, but the Primaries would hold speed longer, allowing for a longer opening stint. 

The pass for the lead on Lap 11 between Luke McKeown (96) and Jordan Caruso (12).

Caruso led the opening 10 laps, but McKeown was on a mission from the jump. McKeown made quick work of Costantini before pressuring Vayron for second, forcing a mistake that would lead to wing damage on the #19 Honda. On the 11th lap, McKeown blew by Caruso and began to open a gap. The gap was more than a second on the 14th lap, with Team Redline’s Cooper Webster—the points leader—now up into third and closing quickly. Caruso opted to pit in earlier than most, on Lap 15, which meant he would need to go 25 laps on the Primary tires to the end.

McKeown stretched it to Lap 19, pitting from the lead, allowing Webster to also grab a lap led as he pitted a lap later. That handed off the lead to Team Redline’s Gustavo Ariel, who led the pack of drivers who started on the Primary tires. Ariel led a train of Team Redline cars on the same strategy for four laps before taking the quartet down pit road, handing the lead to Williams Esports’ Jaden Munoz for a lap before he pitted and gave it back to McKeown on Lap 25.

Among the field, attrition began to creep in as a few drivers slipped up on their out laps from the pits. Team I5G’s Jacob Oster took a hellacious hit into the barrier on Lap 23, but being a road racing event, the caution did not fly and the race continued green as normal. Costantini also found trouble, collecting contact from Apex Racing Team’s Peter Berryman on his out lap, forcing a second pit stop to replace the broken wing.

Damages sustained to the nose of Michele Costantini (66) on Lap 21 after contact with Peter Berryman (50).

Indianapolis road winner, Team Redline’s Edoardo Leo, might be regretting his decision to burn out over the bricks that day, as he’s now failed to finish two of the last three events, retiring early after damages sustained from contact with Drago Racing’s David Toth. The bad luck has dropped the early season favorite from the early points lead down to 10th in the standings now after four races.

Up front, Webster closed the gap to nearly a second before the checkered flag flew. Caruso held on to finish in third, his first podium of the season. McKeown took the checkered after leading 23 laps in the process, scoring 53 out of a possible 54 points on the day.

Luke McKeown takes the checkered flag.

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series results from Race #4 at Barber Motorsports Park are as follows:

Cooper Webster (37) chasing Luke McKeown (96) for the lead.

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series points after Race #4 at Barber Motorsports Park are as follows:

1. Cooper Webster, 145
2. Luke McKeown, 121
3. Diogo C. Pinto, 121
4. Gustavo Ariel, 119
5. Florian A Lebigre, 111
6. Sam Kuitert, 97
7. Philip Kraus, 95
8. Jordan Caruso, 94
9. Peter Berryman, 93
10. Edoardo Leo, 83

Team Redline has a hold on the top of the leaderboard through four races, with Webster leading, Pinto in third, Ariel fourth, Florian Lebigre fifth, and Sam Kuitert in sixth. Leo, as mentioned before, has fallen down to 10th, but still makes him the sixth Team Redline driver in the top-10. McKeown just might be the points leader—and by a lot—had the fuel situation at Iowa been less detrimental. His teammate, Berryman, might also be higher in the standings as well, but for now sits in ninth.

Caruso is the lone Coanda competitor in the top-10, a point behind last week’s winner at Iowa, PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype’s Philip Kraus. With the INDYCAR points system in play, however, there’s still six races left that could completely shake up the standings, and four of those races do happen to be oval events—tracks that drivers like Kraus, Robert Maleczka III (13th), and Oster (19th) could shine at, and get back into the title conversation with good finishes at.

Gustavo Ariel (21) leading a train of Team Redline cars.

Next up just happens to be another oval—the biggest oval race of the season, a 66-lap dance in Speedway at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. During the Qualifying Series season, Apex Racing Team’s Brandon Traino captured the top split victory. In this year’s iRacing Indy 500, Maleczka III was the big winner in a three-wide finish with Jason Brophy and Brendan Lichtenberg.

The broadcast for the Indy oval goes live at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 17th, 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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