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 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 18th 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. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
