Philip Kraus fights for first win of 2026 INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series season at Phoenix

Even with two less ovals on the 2026 INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series schedule, Team Hype w/ Powerslide’s Philip Kraus is still very much in the hunt for the overall championship after collecting his first win of the season at Phoenix Raceway on Thursday night.

From the outside of the front row, Kraus was behind the eight ball early in the going, following behind Powerslide Motorsports’ Alexander Russell for the first half. On one of the first restarts, Kraus attempted to use the fresh virtual Firestones to pounce, but Russell held strong until the next caution, which would fall right in a pit window to make it to the end of the race. After both nearly drove past the open pit road, Kraus managed to leapfrog Russell exiting the pits. Kraus took the lead on the restart and never looked back.

“This was probably a make-or-break race for me, in terms of how the season has gone for me so far,” Kraus stated while sitting in virtual victory lane. “Started off really strong at Long Beach, finished last at Portland, so a tale of two worlds there. Fourth at Indy was good, but I needed more from that, really. This was super important, definitely a season-defining race for me… The pit stop was the race at the end. I could not get around Russell… I think if I don’t beat him out of the pits there, I probably finish second to him. It was a huge track position game today, and I’m lucky to end up on the right side of it.”

Welcome back to victory lane, Philip Kraus!

Kraus takes the second Oval win on the season, and puts himself into the title conversation with three races to go in the season!@IndyCar | @TMThrustmaster pic.twitter.com/eVIZQWWKk4

— iRacing (@iRacing) February 6, 2026

In 15 starts, Kraus now has three victories, and sits tied with last week’s winner, Team Redline’s Edoardo Leo, with the most wins in series history. His other wins came at Iowa Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway last season.

With the win, Kraus vaults up to second in the standings, just a single point behind Indianapolis winner Michele Costantini from Team VRS. Costantini started fifth, and fought all day to climb up to finish in second, becoming the first new points leader other than Team Redline’s Luke McKeown. Team Redline owned the 15th through 20th finishing positions, and McKeown was mired in the middle, finishing 17th behind Florian Lebigre in 15th and last week’s winner, Edoardo Leo, in 16th. McKeown falls to fourth in the points, now behind Drago Racing’s Michael Romanidis, who finished in 12th.

While Team Hype, Team VRS, and Powerslide Motorsports have a hold on the ovals so far this season, of the road-focused teams, Coanda Esports seem to have the edge over the rest, but both Dan Amor and Elliott Vayron just haven’t had the results to show for it throughout the rest of the season. That shifts the focus down to Drago Racing having a slight oval advantage over Team Redline, with four of the Drago drivers, including Romanidis, finishing ahead of the entirety of Team Redline at Phoenix. That could play a role in determining the overall champion.

THE EVENT

A rookie in the series by technicalities, and also an eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series competitor in 2025, oval IndyCar veteran Alexander Russell put it on the pole position in the series’ first trip to the virtual desert on Thursday night. Russell led the field to the green, and the field immediately began to single-file out through all 33 cars.

Team Redline’s Josh Thompson was the first driver to have an issue, retiring after just two completed laps, but the first caution of the race flew a few laps later, on Lap 6, after a wreck collected Drago Racing’s Ricardo Rico and Nexxus eSports’ Quami Scott. When the field returned to green flag racing, it was more of the same, with Russell out front and Philip Kraus right on his tail.

After another non-caution retirement from Williams F1 Team Gaming driver Matteo Kuenzer on Lap 25, a few minutes later, the caution flew for a second time on Lap 36, this time involving the Williams F1 Team Gaming Academy’s Pablo Espes.

With 135 laps on the board on Thursday night, the entire field took the call down pit road on Lap 37, despite not being able to make it to the end. Russell managed to stay at the front at pit exit. On the restart, Kraus attempted to make moves, grabbing the lead at times, but Russell kept fighting back and taking it back, and continued to lead once the tires got slightly more cooked.

The final caution rang with 62 laps to go, and it involved SZESE E-Sport’s Tamas Simon and Team Redline’s Edoardo Leo. Neither driver took significant damage and were able to continue, but it set up for an interesting sequence among the leaders at pit road entry.

Russell slammed on the brakes as he passed pit road entry. The pace car had not yet caught up, and while pit road was open, pitting then would result in a passing the pace car penalty. Kraus was also ahead of the pace car, and needed to also come to a stop. Russell backed up, made it across the commitment line, and entered pit road as soon as the pace car got by, but Kraus managed to use the moment to his advantage. On pit exit, Kraus got around Russell. While it would not be for the lead on the restart, the positions were in Kraus’s favor for the first time.

Team Redline’s Sam Kuitert opted to stay out and led the field back to green, but his tires were completely shot. This gave Kraus all of the advantage that he needed to get around and get away while Russell and Michele Costantini worked their way around the slower Kuitert while also fighting for second.

Costantini, in third, would have been four points out of the points lead if he finished there, so his sights were set on Russell to grab the second spot and five additional points. With a handful of laps to go, the two traded spots, but Costantini didn’t have enough time to try and run down Kraus. Kraus continued to pick off slower traffic, lapping up to 24th before the checkered flag flew, winning over Costantini by 1.3 seconds.

RACE RESULTS FROM RACE NO. 5 | PHOENIX RACEWAY

DRIVERS STANDINGS AFTER RACE NO. 5 | PHOENIX RACEWAY

Including Team Hype w/ Powerslide’s Robert Maleczka III in 11th, the top third of the standings all exist within a race’s worth of points with just three races to go. Not included in that group is the defending series champion, Team Redline’s Diogo Pinto, who falls to 17th. Team Redline does have four drivers still in title contention, that group still led by Luke McKeown, only six points back. Drago Racing, however, now holds the advantage in that rivalry, with Michael Romanidis in third. They are all chasing Michele Costantini with three races to go.

NEXT RACE: GOING IN CIRCLES AGAIN WITH NASHVILLE RETURN

Next up on the calendar is the final oval race of the 2026 season, the 1.3-mile concrete oval known at Nashville Superspeedway. Last year, it was a Team Hype 1-2-3-4 with Robert Maleczka III winning over Philip Kraus, Jason Brophy, and Joshua Chin. Will Team Hype do it once again with Jacob Oster and Adam Blocker on the team this year, or can anyone else step up or break up the status quo?

All of the action from Nashville 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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