Philip Kraus closes in on INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series championship lead after second win of season at WWT Raceway

The perfect strategy played into the lap of PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype’s Philip Kraus on Thursday night. For the second time in two weeks, a previous winner returned to INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series victory lane, and this time, it was Kraus scoring win #2 on the season at World Wide Technology Raceway.

In the closing laps, Kraus caught and passed both David Toth (Drago Racing) and his teammate, Joshua Chin, to take the lead for the final time. A caution coming to the white flag put a seal on it, as Kraus and Chin crossed the line side-by-side for yet another 1-2 finish for the PLTH group. With the second win of the year, and with only three races to go, Kraus pulls to within three points of the points lead, still maintained by Team Redline’s Diogo Pinto, who struggled throughout the night to finish in 14th.

“This was definitely a super important race for me and all of my PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype teammates,” Kraus said post-race. “It’s another oval round, we know we have to perform on these, we have to execute. We don’t have the pace on the road courses right now… after the last race, that was the worst we were ever going to look in points, in my opinion, as long as everything goes to plan. So far, we’ve ticked one box, we’ve got two more ovals to tick, and hopefully, we just minimize the bleeding at Laguna to give us the best chance possible.”

The other driver with two wins this year, Team Redline’s Edoardo Leo, finished in fourth, and sits just six points behind his teammate for the points lead. The championship now has three races to go, and as Kraus alluded to in his interview, two of them are ovals. Leo proved to be a threat in Gateway, running the majority of Thursday night’s event ahead of Kraus. While Pinto holds the crown for the moment, he also has no victories, and his streak of all-top-10 finishes came to an end as well. If anything is for certain, this title fight is far from over.

THE RACE

Coanda Esports showed up big in qualifying on the third oval of the season. Michael Romanidis put it on the pole with his teammate, Michele Costantini right alongside. PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype’s Robert Maleczka III scored third, with Leo in fourth and Kraus fifth. Things started off smoothly, with the field taking it easy early on. Leo moved up into third right away as Team Redline’s Florian Lebigre moved into fourth as Maleczka and Kraus went into a save mode.

The first caution flew on Lap 12, and it was a big one. Team I5G’s Jacob Oster, one of the oval threats, found himself mired back in the 20s after qualifying 23rd. Out of Turn 2, he clipped the outside SAFER barrier, slowing him into the path of another oval threat, PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype’s Jason Brophy. The two collided and collected Drago Racing’s Jose Soria and Pike From Beach Racing’s Jussi Kataja, as well as Williams Esports’ Jaden Munoz. Munoz was the only one able to continue as the other four were forced into early retirement from the event.

Romanidis led the field back to green as Team Redline’s Sam Kuitert had a wrench thrown in his championship plans with a black flag to serve for passing under yellow into the pits. Kuitert wasn’t the only driver on pit road under that yellow, as both Chin and Powerslide Motorsports’ Jeff Drake opted to pit for a possible strategy that could play out later on. That strategy would be revealed nearly 30 laps later.

A caution on the 39th lap of the 108 lap event, involving just Privateer Xavi Ros in a single car spin, put the field in a tough spot. With track position a major factor, a majority of the field opted to pit for fuel and tires, knowing there wouldn’t be a way to make it to the end without a lot of help. Kraus was one of those drivers, giving up a top-five position. Romanidis kept the track position, hoping the strategy would fall his way. Chin and Drake also stayed on the track, gaining valuable track position for what would turn into the final run of the day.

After restarting in 10th, Kraus only managed to get back to ninth before the pits began to cycle from those ahead who did not stop, with Romanidis striking first on Lap 57. Costantini dove down two laps later, followed by Toth, which handed the lead to Chin. While Drake had fallen into the clutches of those on the pit-under-yellow strategy, Chin maintained his track position and led until the 69th lap, and as he gave up the lead for his final service of the day, Kraus made the move on Leo for what would turn into the lead.

Kraus pulled as big of a lead as he could before pitting with 18 laps to go. Leo stayed out an extra three laps, and Pinto grabbed an all-important point on Lap 94 by waiting for his final pit stop on Lap 95. Williams Esports’ Sota Muto led, pitting at the end of Lap 98. On Lap 99, it fell into the hands of Team I5G’s Brendan Lichtenberg. Before anyone could check on if he might have enough fuel to make it to the end, he turned left down the access road and handed the lead over on Lap 100.

Chin wound up the biggest benefactor of the three pit strategy, inheriting the lead on Lap 100. Kraus, however, was flying through the field up to that point, already up to second around Toth the lap prior. With seven laps to go, Kraus made the move on Chin, a move not contested. Chin pulled into line and the teammates began to pull away from Toth. On the penultimate lap, Ros binned it for a second time, this time collecting Costantini to deny him a top-10 finish, setting up the yellow-checkered ending for the third time in three oval races this year.

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series results from Race #7 at World Wide Technology Raceway are as follows:

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series points after Race #7 at World Wide Technology Raceway are as follows:

1. Diogo C. Pinto, 204
2. Philip Kraus, 201
3. Edoardo Leo, 198
4. Gustavo Ariel, 182
5. Cooper Webster, 167
6. Robert Maleczka III, 161
7. Sam Kuitert, 160
8. Michael Romanidis, 153
9. Florian Lebigre, 148
10. Luke McKeown, 146

After leading the way two weeks ago, Team Redline’s Cooper Webster only managed a 22nd place effort, and combining that with the missed race last week, that moves him down to fifth overall. Pinto still leads the way, but will likely need to win at the final road course to have a proper shot with how well the PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype drivers have done at the ovals. The top-eight drivers in the points are all within a race to the leader, and could still have a chance at the title, but the way things are shaping up, it looks to be heading to a Kraus vs Team Redline showdown.

Next up on the schedule is WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, a 40-lap road course event, the last road course event in this year’s inaugural championship. Laguna Seca was not on the Qualifying Series schedule over the summer, so this will be a new challenge to these top-33 open-wheel drivers amongst one another.

The broadcast for Laguna Seca goes live at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 7th, 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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