iRacing Indianapolis 500: Traino does the triple

For the record-extending third year in a row, Brandon Traino is the winner of the top split of the iRacing Indianapolis 500 for 2021.

After using a iRacing win in the Friday split to get ready for the big show, the real-world tire changer for Joe Gibbs Racing posted a dominant performance saw him lead 122 of the race’s 200 laps on the way to a .272-second victory over teammate and polesitter Michele Costantini.

Traino immediately took the lead from Costantini at the start of the race, setting the stage for an exciting battle throughout the day between the duo. Costantini would reclaim the top spot on Lap 22 to lead the first of his 52 laps up front, but would give up the lead for good to Traino on Lap 188.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup front-runner Zac Campbell would lead six laps of his own on the way to completing the podium.

19 of the 33 drivers in the top split finished on the lead lap, including a top five separated by under three seconds.

Just four cautions slowed the pace, with more than 90 green-flag laps at the end of the race emboldening drivers to push different pit strategies in hopes of stealing the top split win. All told, there were 31 lead changes on the day, with six different drivers spending time up front.

Beyond the top split, iRacers combined for 82 different splits of this year’s Indy 500 across four different time slots. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

Full results from the top split of the 2021 iRacing Indianapolis 500 were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Car	Laps	Interval	Led	Best
1	2	3	Brandon Traino	Dallara IR18	200		122	40.719
2	1	13	Michele Costantini	Dallara IR18	200	-0.272	52	40.773
3	3	2	Zac Campbell	Dallara IR18	200	-0.947	6	40.668
4	5	24	Wilson Neto	Dallara IR18	200	-1.806	0	40.661
5	6	7	Philip Kraus	Dallara IR18	200	-2.349	1	40.561
6	10	20	Connor Harrington	Dallara IR18	200	-9.372	0	40.806
7	9	8	Jason Brophy	Dallara IR18	200	-9.892	0	40.662
8	11	6	Henry Bennett	Dallara IR18	200	-10.501	0	40.787
9	22	28	Andrew Kinsella	Dallara IR18	200	-11.053	0	40.679
10	16	9	Brendan Lichtenberg	Dallara IR18	200	-11.351	0	40.832
11	4	27	Yohann Harth	Dallara IR18	200	-11.811	4	40.833
12	21	11	Hugo Olsson	Dallara IR18	200	-12.256	0	40.644
13	28	18	Jesper Öhrman	Dallara IR18	200	-12.880	0	40.773
14	14	21	Andrew Z Wood	Dallara IR18	200	-17.474	0	40.866
15	20	25	Liam Quinn	Dallara IR18	200	-26.883	0	40.912
16	19	5	Andreas Eik	Dallara IR18	200	-27.624	0	40.822
17	24	16	Chad Simpson	Dallara IR18	200	-28.526	0	40.843
18	31	22	Adam Crane	Dallara IR18	200	-28.913	0	40.694
19	32	29	James C Walker	Dallara IR18	200	-29.657	0	40.903
20	29	19	Alexis Newsome	Dallara IR18	199	-1 L	0	40.574
21	17	4	Joshua Chin	Dallara IR18	199	-1 L	0	40.874
22	33	30	Frank Levick IV	Dallara IR18	199	-1 L	0	41.041
23	8	1	Christopher Demeritt	Dallara IR18	187	-13 L	15	40.724
24	18	10	Austin Espitee	Dallara IR18	185	-15 L	0	40.822
25	26	15	Riley Thompson	Dallara IR18	143	-57 L	0	40.707
26	15	14	A J Burton	Dallara IR18	106	-94 L	0	40.823
27	7	26	Tanner J Watkins	Dallara IR18	106	-94 L	0	41.074
28	27	33	Joao Valverde	Dallara IR18	105	-95 L	0	41.039
29	12	12	Christian Steele	Dallara IR18	86	-114 L	0	40.740
30	13	17	Matt Pawelski	Dallara IR18	80	-120 L	0	40.791
31	23	32	Rodrigo Franzoni	Dallara IR18	79	-121 L	0	40.933
32	25	31	Plinio Ferreira	Dallara IR18	54	-146 L	0	41.090
33	30	23	Jacob Oster	Dallara IR18	17	-183 L	0	41.207

The iRacing special event calendar continues with the full-length iRacing Coca-Cola 600 as part of the NASCAR iRacing Series schedule this weekend.

Endurance racing returns on the week of June 18^th with the iRacing Watkins Glen 6HR, featuring the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship lineup, while open-wheel drivers can strap into the Dallara iR-01 on July 10-13 for the inaugural iRacing HockenheimRing Grand Prix.