Michael Costello took his first win in USF Pro 2000 in the Freedom 90 at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Thursday night, beating his Turn 3 Motorsport teammate Leonardo Escorpioni by just 0.1312 seconds, while Indy NXT frontrunner Tymek Kucharczyk finished third on his oval racing debut in a one-off entry. Feeder Series was on the ground at IRP to review all the action and speak to the figures who made the difference in the series’ biggest event.

By Michael McClure and Vincent van der Hoek

The 20 drivers racing in USF Pro 2000 this year all, by and large, have a greater ambition: to move up the ranks into IndyCar, where they may one day race in – and perhaps even win – the Indianapolis 500.

It’s a dream still years away for even the best of them. But for a moment on Thursday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Michael Costello let himself realise another, equally significant dream – winning his first USF Pro 2000 race at the championship’s flagship oval event.

“To win the Freedom 90 is like our 500. It feels awesome,” he said. “It’s a huge monkey off my back. I finally got a win, so now it’s just about how many more can I get.”

Costello’s first win came after a challenging season and a half in American open-wheel racing’s third tier. Quick on his day but blighted by misfortune last year, Costello never finished higher than third in a race and lagged behind his Pabst Racing teammates in the standings. But the domination he showed at times over the course of the 2026 Freedom 90 made clear that while he still wasn’t flawless, he was certainly a much more confident, complete driver.

In practice, Turn 3 Motorsport’s Costello was the clear pacesetter with a 19.6317-second time, 0.1724s faster than G3 Argyros in second. In qualifying, he may have been a contender for pole, and indeed he briefly held it, but teammate Escorpioni ultimately took his first pole position in USF Pro 2000 on his maiden appearance on an oval. Costello, 0.0398s behind, was left to rue what could have been after making a slight error on his second lap that compromised a potential second attempt at pole.

Teddy Musella initially qualified third, but a technical infraction earned him a disqualification and sent him to the back of the grid. This promoted Kucharczyk to third in his oval qualifying debut with TJ Speed Motorsports, whom he joined for this round to gain experience on ovals. Kucharczyk still beat out his more experienced teammates Thomas Schrage in fourth and Christian Cameron in fifth as well as both of the top two in the championship, who were left with work to do from eighth and 14th position respectively.

Escorpioni’s pole position was a milestone achievement for multiple reasons. For one, it was the 16-year-old’s first qualifying session on an oval. It was also a much-needed shot in the arm for a rookie still reeling from a car-destroying barrel roll at IMS 12 days before, which meant he was also tackling qualifying in new machinery.

“Last weekend at Indy, the road course didn’t go to plan,” Escorpioni said. “The first day, especially coming from the flip, I was a little scared, to be honest. Mentally, it was a little hard. But it’s been working, trying to pick up little by little, not doing too much. Especially here in quali, it was just flat-out full push, so I’m super happy to come out with the pole.”

When the field rolled to green, Escorpioni maintained the lead over Costello as drivers jockeyed for position behind. During the chaotic opening laps, disaster struck for 14th-place starter Mossman on lap three when his VRD Racing machine hit the wall rear-first in Turn 3, ending his race before it even properly started. This gave Jeffers a big opportunity to increase his championship lead – a critical factor given his substandard eighth-place result in qualifying.

Once the wreckage was cleared, Escorpioni led the field to green again on lap 11 and kept the race lead over Costello. Behind them, Brady Golan quickly moved past Schrage into fourth and started chasing Kucharczyk for third place. Argyros also joined the battle, overtaking Cameron for sixth on lap 13 and making a move on Schrage on lap 17. Attempts to pass Golan proved fruitless.

On lap 18, Costello overtook Escorpioni for the lead of the race into Turn 3. The two Turn 3 Motorsport teammates then built up a big gap over Kucharczyk as they started going through lapped traffic, making their way through 15th-placed Tanner DeFabis by the race’s halfway point on lap 45. Meanwhile, championship leader Jeffers was locked in a fierce battle with Jacob Douglas and Musella, who started last, for 10th.

All action was brought to a halt on lap 57, when Charles Finelli hit the wall after a spin at Turn 4. On the restart that followed at the end of lap 62, Costello and Escorpioni had a buffer of lapped cars between them and Kucharczyk, and by the time the Polish driver cleared them, the gap to the leaders was over two seconds. 

The driver with the best restart, though, was Jeffers, who surged from 11th to sixth. 

“It’s kind of what you have to take advantage of around here, right? Once you get a groove and everybody gets in a line, it’s very hard to pass with the aero wash and working different lines and set-up,” Jeffers said. “I didn’t really have the pace to really bring it to crack the top five, and then… we had a good restart, made up a lot of positions, caught a lot of people lacking and were able to hold on from there.

As the race neared its conclusion, Costello appeared to be on his way to a comfortable win – until he almost hit the wall at Turn 4 on lap 88 of 90, giving his teammate Escorpioni the chance to make a final lunge for the lead. The Turn 3 Motorsport drivers went side by side through Turn 1, but Costello, despite being on fading tyres, pulled ahead again exiting Turn 2 and held on to take his first win in USF Pro 2000 and his first anywhere since USF2000 race one in Portland in 2024.

“I knew if I could get through traffic fast and clean, I was going to pull a gap. I did. A yellow came out, and I knew that there wasn’t going to be as much traffic because everyone’s just bunched up,” he said. “So I was like from the start, I’m just going to try to push as much as I can because I know that it’s going to fall off at some point, and it fell off. 

“I think I could have done a little bit of a better job managing it, but I say that now. Ultimately, I clearly did what I needed to do to win.”

Escorpioni capped off a strong round in second place, though he was tantalisingly close to reclaiming the first place he held at the start of the race.

“In the beginning, Michael was pushing a lot harder than me. I was trying to save a little bit of tyres. I wasn’t expecting to go yellow again at the end or else I think we would have had a little bit more to challenge for the win,” Escorpioni said.

As for those final three laps?

“I saw Michael messed up a little bit in Turn 4, and I was like, I can’t go too far. It’s my teammate. They just put the car back together; I’m not going to risk it. This championship’s long. I’m thinking about the championship. As long as I’m on the podium, I’m happy,” Escorpioni added.

“When I got there, I was like, ‘Of course I’m going try to fight for the win’, but it wasn’t anything elbows out about it. If I have to finish P2, I’ll finish P2, move on to Road America and try to go for the win.”

Kucharczyk held off a late charge from TJ Speed Motorsports teammate Schrage to keep the final podium spot. Golan finished in fifth, giving the Turn 3 team three cars in the top five.

Despite saying IRP was ‘definitely not one of [his] stronger tracks’, Jeffers finished in sixth as the best Exclusive Autosport driver ahead of teammate Mac Clark, who rose from 15th to seventh. Musella, who started the race at the back of the field, finished eighth as Argyros and Douglas rounded out the top 10.

Having five cars qualify in the top 10 represented a standout showing for Turn 3 Motorsport. And while two of them slipped to 13th and 15th come the race, their 1-2 finish was still their first in the series, capping off one of their best outings since their debut in 2019.

“A one-two in any order was going to be a huge benefit to our championship points, especially [having] points and a half. So the drivers knew that before the race started,” team co-owner Peter Dempsey said. “We always felt confident, I think coming here, that we could deliver, and I think we delivered for all our drivers through the week.

Dempsey is used to close finishes. After all, he was triumphant in the 2013 Freedom 100 by a margin of just 0.0026s – at the time the closest-ever finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So in those last few laps, while atop the main grandstand as a spotter for Escorpioni – who he says is ‘top of the list on ability’ among drivers Turn 3 has fielded – what was going through his mind?

“Leo just went for the last 10 laps. I think Michael’s burning the car off, so the last 10 laps to go, we’re going to push and we’re going to try to win it. We nearly pulled it off. I wanted to win the race as the spotter for Leo,” Dempsey answered. “In the moment, you want to win for the car you’re spotting. But I’m delighted for Michael and Dave, my team manager who was spotting for him. I’m so delighted for them to get their first win. If the race was tomorrow, we would have won it, but onwards and upwards.”

Onwards indeed to the next round in June at Road America, where Turn 3 Motorsport now enter as the teams’ championship leaders on 122 points to Exclusive Autosport’s 116. Exclusive’s Jeffers is now the sole drivers’ championship leader with 110 points, seven points ahead of race winner Costello, who jumps up from fourth to second with 103 points. Escorpioni remains in third place with 97 points, while Mossman, who had been tied with Jeffers entering the round, scored only two points with his non-finish and drops to fourth with 89 points. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Leonardo Escorpioni, 19.7852	Michael Costello, +0.0398s	Tymek Kucharczyk, +0.1764s
Race (90 laps)	Michael Costello, 35:56.7095	Leonardo Escorpioni, +0.1312s	Tymek Kucharczyk, +3.0919s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Jack Jeffers, 110	Turn 3 Motorsport, 122	Jack Jeffers, 110
P2	Michael Costello, 103	Exclusive Autosport, 116	Leonardo Escorpioni, 97
P3	Leonardo Escorpioni, 97	VRD Racing, 84	G3 Argyros, 70
P4	Frankie Mossman, 89	Pabst Racing, 67	Thomas Schrage, 70
P5	Brady Golan, 80	TJ Speed Motorsports, 66	Andrés Cárdenas, 64
P6	G3 Argyros, 70	JHDD powered by ECR, 40	Christian Cameron, 60
P7	Thomas Schrage, 70	Comet/NCMP Racing, 13	Teddy Musella, 59
P8	Jacob Douglas, 69	FatBoy Racing!, 12	Colin Aitken, 48
P9	Mac Clark, 65		JT Hoskins, 43
P10	Andrés Cárdenas, 64		Mayer Deonarine, 33

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker