2026 INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series | Race Preview | Race 5 at Phoenix Raceway

The fifth round of the INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series takes the 33 top-ranked virtual IndyCar competitors back to the oval on Thursday night. Phoenix Raceway, the second of three oval races on the eight-race schedule, will have its first virtual action in this series as it also returns to the real world NTT INDYCAR Series schedule later this year as well. Expect the oval specialists from Team Hype and Powerslide Motorsports to play a factor all night, but also don’t forget Team VRS’s Michele Costantini, the only oval winner this year from Indianapolis.

Coverage at Phoenix Raceway begins at 8:00 p.m. ET, and will be live on IndyCar’s YouTube channel, as well as across all of iRacing’s social media channels.

One Point Separates Top Two Midway Through INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series season

TRACK FACTS: PHOENIX RACEWAY

Nestled in the foothills of Arizona’s Estrella Mountains, Phoenix Raceway is one of America’s most challenging ovals.  Though originally built for open wheel racing, over the past two decades the desert flower has become even more famous for stock car competition. With its short front straight and asymmetrical layout—including a trademark left-hand dog leg on the backstretch—this demanding one-mile circuit has been a favorite with top driving talent since it opened in 1964.

In 2012, the International Speedway Corporation completed a major overhaul of Phoenix Raceway that widened the front straight, repaved the pit stalls with concrete and moved the dogleg outward, changing its banking to 10-11 degrees.  In addition, the track changed to progressive banking in Turns 1 and 2, while Turns 3 and 4 were changed to 8-9 degrees in banking. The infield road course was also removed, making Phoenix Raceway an oval-only facility.

LAST RACE: LEO OUTSTRATEGIZES ROMANIDIS FOR HOME WIN AT MUGELLO

When the whole field chooses the primary option, sometimes the winning move is to take an alternate path. That’s exactly what the Italian, Edoardo Leo, was able to do to grab his first victory of 2026, and third of his career, at Mugello Circuit last week. From the sixth starting spot, Leo put on the Alternate red-walled tires to start the race, while the three Drago Racing cars ahead of him, led by Michael Romanidis, started on the Primary tires.

With about seven laps to go, it looked like Romanidis was on the right strategy, switching to Alternates with 12 laps to go. However, Leo had used his reds more consistently, where Romanidis began to fall off, along with the rest of the field. With two laps to go, Leo was in the lead, and by the checkers, he had gapped to a winning margin over four seconds.

DRIVERS STANDINGS ENTERING PHOENIX RACEWAY

1. No. 96 Luke McKeown | Team Redline Honda, 90 points
2. No. 53 Michael Romanidis | Drago Racing Chevy, -1
3. No. 66 Michele Costantini | Team VRS, -21
4. No. 02 Florian Lebigre | Team Redline, -29
5. No. 5 Nicolas Mateo [R] | Drago Racing Chevy, -30

LAST SEASON: FIVE OVALS, NONE OF THEM PHOENIX

Phoenix is new to the fold in 2026, in both this virtual racing competition as well as in the NTT INDYCAR Series, as the venue makes its return to that schedule in March. While Indianapolis and Nashville are both returning, Phoenix takes the place of three ovals not returning, those including Iowa Speedway, The Milwaukee Mile, and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. A similar package as to what they’ll be running tonight, those three tracks had Philip Kraus and Michele Costantini as winners—two of the major favorites to win tonight.

NEXT UP: AN INTERMEDIATE MID-SEASON FIGHT AT NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY

The oval excursion ends next week with a trip back to Nashville Superspeedway on February 12th. That race won by Robert Maleczka III, it was the site of the 2024 championship battle between Diogo Pinto and Philip Kraus. Pinto just needed to finish 14th or better to claim the title, and wound up 11th. With Kraus needing that and the win, knowing the title was out of reach, that allowed the Team Hype teammates to battle for it in a 1-2-3-4 finish, where Maleczka III won it, and Kraus barely beat Jason Brophy for second, with Josh Chin rounding out the top-four.

All of the action from Nashville Superspeedway starts at 8:00 p.m. ET, and will be live on INDYCAR’s YouTube channel, as well as across all of iRacing’s social media channels.

For more information on the INDYCAR Thrustmaster 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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