Defending champion Diogo Pinto collects first 2026 INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series on Nashville oval

Last season, Team Redline’s Diogo Pinto celebrated on the frontstretch at Nashville Superspeedway as the inaugural champion of the series, not because he won the race, but because he was able to muster an 11th place finish, the best he had on that day, but enough to hold on for the title.

On Thursday night, Pinto celebrated once more, this time as a race winner on the 1.33-mile concrete oval. A discipline that’s been dominated by the likes of Team Hype and Powerslide Motorsports, a track type that Team VRS’s Michele Costantini has been piling points up at all season long, it all didn’t matter, as Team Redline collectively figured it out, worked together as a team to get Pinto to the lead, and from there, the champ did the rest to grab his first career oval win in the series.

THE CHAMP HAS RETURNED! Diogo Pinto wins it in dramatic fashion at Nashville!@IndyCar | @TMThrustmaster pic.twitter.com/tTTTzwFuvN

— iRacing (@iRacing) February 13, 2026

“It’s a great feeling, considering my season has been a disaster so far,” Pinto said post-race. “I just went into this race ‘full send’, and whatever happens, happens. I found myself in a great place at the end, and I just kept taking all the risks to stay ahead, and it worked out. We worked very well as a team going into this race, so it’s not just my win, it’s their win as well. It’s the first time we have a winning car… it’s really, really good to finally have a nice feeling after a race because it has been my worst championship, I think, in a long time, so it’s very nice to get this win.”

The win marks Pinto’s second in his career in 16 starts, adding another trophy to go alongside his championship one from 2024 and his WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca win as well. Laguna Seca will close out the season, with Mid-Ohio the next-to-last battle up next. Michele Costantini leads the standings after six races, but Pinto now finds himself within a race of the lead, 51 points back. An unexpected oval win could be just what Team Redline needed to get back into this title fight.

THE EVENT

Michele Costantini took the pole position, pocketing an extra point in the bank, but it was Coanda Esports’ Dan Amor taking control early in the going. The race, set at 110 laps, would be just on the fringe of making it to the end on a single pit stop, so strategies were immediately in place from the get go, that is, until a wrench was thrown into the mix on Lap 5.

Contact sent Drago Racing’s Peter Berryman into a spin cycle, which also collected Williams F1 Team Gaming Academy’s Pablo Espes in the carnage. With the caution, the field was split in the pits. Half of the field decided for a bit of a splash of gas, which would likely put them into a fuel number at the end to make it on one more stop. Everyone else who didn’t pit would need to save even harder to make it, and that’s how the first run turned into a run headlined by saving.

As the field neared halfway, Amor continued to lead the way. Likely knowing that he wasn’t going to make it on a single stop, he ultimately gave the rest of the field the option to stay in his wake, or risk becoming the leader of a line and not saving fuel, which meant those running in second would need to run even harder to burn more fuel to keep up, a risky conundrum for sure.

Through the opening stint, the Team Redline quartet of Diogo Pinto, Luke McKeown, Edoardo Leo, and Florian Lebigre all managed to work the middle lane up into the top-five positions, with Costantini falling back to sixth. Besides Costantini, there also existed two Nexxus eSports drivers in Quami Scott and Esteban Rodriguez, two Team Hype w/ Powerside drivers in Philip Kraus and Jacob Oster, and the other Coanda Esports driver Elliott Vayron before two more Team Redline machines of Sam Kuitert and Josh Thompson were also working their way through the field. However, it was time for pit road to get busy, and as expected, Amor was way short, pitting at the end of Lap 49.

With Pinto taking the lead, he risked running out of gas if the race were to stay green, and sure enough, while he made it all of the way to Lap 55, exactly halfway, his second run would need even more fuel saving to get to the end.

One of the last to pit in the cycle was Powerslide Motorsports’ Alexander van de Sandt, who managed to make it to the end of Lap 61 with Team Hype w/ Powerslide’s Robert Maleczka III, the defending winner of the race. Both were looking really good, as they could push a lot more than the rest of the field, but then their strategy got upended by a caution involving Vayron.

Even worse for Maleczka, he had connection issues with the server, falling out right after the restart. On the restart, it was Costantini in control, but van de Sandt was on a mission with the most fuel, and made his way to the top spot with 40 laps to go.

It was a split among the pack, where there were some who were confident with their fuel number, and some who were not, leading to a few moments of three, sometimes four-wide racing. It led to a couple more cautions, which at the end of the day, meant everyone could make it. One of the cautions would be for the early dominator, Amor, who was forced to pit again, restarting in 25th. While mired in the pack, he got caught up with Drago Racing’s Nicolas Mateo as his hopeful day ended early once more.

There were also a couple of stack up incidents, one of which ended the day for the Portland winner, WSR Esports’ Jaden Munoz. In total on the night, there were six cautions for 18 laps. The second-to-last would prove to be the most imperative to the championship conversation.

Team Redline was having a monstrous day in Nashville, and a top-five would have absolutely made McKeown the favorite entering the final two races. However, McKeown, Kraus, and Lebigre all made contact with 21 to go, which would end McKeown’s chances at that result. Instead of a potential 30 point day or more, McKeown settled for 11 points, and now has a gap of 37 points to make up over the final two weeks. Not impossible, but definitely a detriment.

Kraus wasn’t out of it, but did likely have to pit for repair, meaning he would restart in the back of the pack, his chances at winning seemingly over. At the front, Pinto was in control, but he had van de Sandt and Costantini all over him.

However, for van de Sandt, his earlier push likely made his tires unhappy as he began to fall back. With 13 laps to go, his race ended unceremoniously upside down. Oster moved up the track, forcing Thompson to check up, and van de Sandt had nowhere to go but up and over onto his lid.

Under 10 laps to go, and Pinto still led. Costantini sat behind, knowing a win could vault him closer to a title, but also knowing a wreck could ultimately end it. Over the final laps, Costantini held the low line, allowing for Rodriguez, Leo, and at one point as they took the white flag, Oster on the very top to get alongside on the outside. At one moment, it looked as though they might go four-wide into Turn 1, but Scott backed out of it on the bottom, allowing Costantini to clear into second and make one last run at Pinto.

Off of Turn 2, Costantini faked high, and darted low, but Pinto was ready. Costantini couldn’t afford to lose his wings on the nose, so he backed off and allowed Pinto to get a slight gap. Into Turn 3, he was still there, trying to build that run out of the corner. Off of Turn 4, Pinto put it right on the apron, preventing Costantini’s run to the checkers, giving Pinto the victory.

Pinto joins McKeown, Munoz, Costantini, Leo, and Kraus as the sixth different winner in six races on the season. Only two races remain in the 2026 campaign.

RACE RESULTS FROM RACE NO. 6 | NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY

DRIVERS STANDINGS AFTER RACE NO. 6 | NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY

With two races left to go, it’s Michele Costantini’s title to lose. The Italian managed to maximize the ovals this season, with an impressive 1.67 average finish across Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Nashville. Costantini does only have a single top-10 on the road, however, with his 10th place run at Mugello. He’ll need to potentially do better than that to maintain the lead in these final two races.

It really could be anyone’s title. Drago Racing’s Michael Romanidis has been super consistent all year, nearly claiming the Mugello win, and now only 26 points back of Costantini entering these final two races. Despite disasters at Portland and Nashville, Luke McKeown, who led the points through the first four races, is still within 37 points of the lead. Diogo Pinto is the driver to keep a close eye on. Now a race within the points lead, should he win out the season, which Laguna Seca is a track he won at last year, he has a very real chance at going back-to-back now after claiming that elusive oval win.

NEXT RACE: TWO TO GO, FIRST UP IS MID-OHIO

The penultimate battle takes the virtual INDYCAR grid to Mid-Ohio next week, the site chosen by fans earlier in the season as the Fan Vote track. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course makes its return to the calendar after residing on it in the inaugural season, that battle won by Edoardo Leo. Will it be Leo scoring the win again and putting his name in the hat for the title, or can anyone else tame this 2.26-mile, 13 corner venue in Lexington?

All of the action from Mid-Ohio 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.

You may also like...

Recommended

2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series | Where are the top drivers from the 2025 season? | Feature #1

Recommended

2025-26 eNASCAR College iRacing Series | Great Lakes Gauntlet | Tournament 4, Week 1 Recap

Recommended

2026 INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series | Race Preview | Race 6 at Nashville Superspeedway

Recommended

iRacing Weekly Tune-in | eSports & Community Events | February 12th to February 18th, 2026