2005 Infiniti Pro Series

The 2005 Menards IRL Infiniti Pro Series was the fourth season of the series under the Indy Racing League ownership, and the 20th in Indy NXT combined history, as officially recognized by IndyCar. All teams used Dallara IL-02 chassis and Infiniti engines, a combination that was raced for the first time on road courses.[1]

2005 Infiniti Pro Series season
Infiniti Pro Series
Season
Races14
Start dateMarch 6
End dateOctober 16
Awards
Drivers' championNew Zealand Wade Cunningham
Teams' championUnited States Brian Stewart Racing
Rookie of the YearNew Zealand Wade Cunningham
Champion Wade Cunningham at St. Petersburg
Infiniti Pro Series logo.

In a consistent, and almost winless, rookie year, Wade Cunningham became the champion by scoring his only win of the year in the final round at California Speedway. Driving for the storied Brian Stewart Racing, Cunningham led the championship from the sixth round, despite not scoring a win or a pole position in the first 12 races. At the end of the year, he had a total of 10 podium finishes, seven of those in second place.

Jeff Simmons returned to the series full-time, and recovered from a bad first half of the season to score four wins. He repeated his second place finish in the standings from 2003 by beating Travis Gregg, who scored a field-record six pole positions and won three races with defending champions Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Jaime Camara, also driving for Schmidt, won the Freedom 100 from pole position ahead of Cunningham, adding another win at Nashville to finish fifth behind fellow rookie Nick Bussell.

With the introduction of road course racing in the IRL IndyCar Series, the Infiniti Pro Series followed suit with four road course races, including his first race outside of the IndyCar bill, the Liberty Challenge held at the Indianapolis road course during the controversial U. S. Grand Prix weekend. Driving a partial schedule, 18-year old Marco Andretti set the standard at the road course races with three wins, being only beaten by Simmons at Watkins Glen. These results, along with a podium finish at Kentucky, were enough to finish 10th in the standings before his IndyCar promotion.

Five years after Team Green left Indy Lights, Andretti Green Racing entered the Infiniti Pro Series for the first time at selected rounds. Newly formed IndyCar team Vision Racing also entered the series, while Roth Racing and Racing Professionals went on to contest the full season. Genoa Racing returned and J. L. West Motorsports also entered from the beginning with both teams downsizing halfway through the year, while Michael Crawford Motorsports also debuted with a partial schedule. On the other hand, Mo Nunn Racing's Pro Series operation was disbanded along with the main team, and both Keith Duesenberg Racing and Roquin Motorsports left the series.

The series had at least 11 drivers at each round, with 15 competitors at Phoenix and 18 drivers in the Freedom 100. Eight drivers competed in every race, plus Jay Drake at all but one race. At Chicagoland, Sarah McCune became the first woman in series history to score a pole, this being the only start of her career. Marty Roth competed again in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Freedom 100, where he was one of three starters with previous IndyCar experience along with Simmons and Jon Herb, the winner at Phoenix earlier in the year.

Team and driver chart

Team No. Drivers Rounds
Sam Schmidt Motorsports 1 Brazil Jaime Camara All
7 United States Travis Gregg All
8 United States Sarah McCune 12
11 Canada Tom Wood 4
United States P. J. Abbott 5, 14
United States Rocco DeSimone 13
19 United States Chris Festa All
Brian Stewart Racing 3 United States Alfred Unser 1–4
Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. 5–10
United States Bobby Wilson 11–14
33 New Zealand Wade Cunningham All
Roth Racing 4 Canada Marty Roth All
AFS Racing 5 Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. 2–3
25 14
27 United States G. J. Mennen 2
United States Rocky Moran Jr. 4
United States Geoff Dodge 14
Racing Professionals 6 United States Jon Herb All
Vision Racing 9 United States Ed Carpenter 6
United States Nick Bussell 7–14
20 United States Jay Drake 1–12, 14
United States Phil Giebler 13
Michael Crawford Motorsports 11 United States Scott Mayer 2, 8, 11–12
J. L. West Motorsports 21 United States Nick Bussell 1–6
Dave McMillan Racing 22 United Kingdom Scott Mansell 11, 13
Bullet-Team Motorsports 23 United States Taylor Fletcher 4, 14
Kenn Hardley Racing 24 United States Jeff Simmons All
42 Mexico Germán Quiroga 4
Canada Tom Wood 7, 10
Andretti Green Racing 26 United States Marco Andretti 3–4, 6, 9, 11, 13
Genoa Racing 36 United States P. J. Chesson 1–3
India Imran Husain 4
United States Larry Connor 6, 13
Hemelgarn Racing 42 United States Mishael Abbott 1
91 2, 4, 6
United States Jerry Coons Jr. 7
American Revolution Racing 77 United States Cole Carter 4

Schedule

Chris Festa, Arie Luyendyk Jr., and Marty Roth

The Infiniti Pro Series accompanied the new IndyCar road course events at St. Petersburg, Sonoma and Watkins Glen, while also adding a fourth road course event in Indianapolis as part of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix bill. The oval races at Kansas and Michigan were removed from the schedule, which grew from 12 events to 14. The Texas date was moved to June after the fall event was discontinued by IndyCar, with California Speedway serving as the venue for the season finale.

Rd. Date Race name Track Location
1 March 6 Homestead-Miami 100  O  Homestead–Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida
2 March 19 Phoenix 100  O  Phoenix International Raceway Avondale, Arizona
3 April 3 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg  R  Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
4 May 27 Futaba Freedom 100  O  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
5 June 11 Firestone 100  O  Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas
6 June 18 Liberty Challenge  R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course Speedway, Indiana
7 July 16 Cleanevent 100  O  Nashville Superspeedway Lebanon, Tennessee
8 July 24 Milwaukee 100  O  Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin
9 August 13 Bluegrass 100  O  Kentucky Speedway Sparta, Kentucky
10 August 21 Pikes Peak 100  O  Pikes Peak International Raceway Fountain, Colorado
11 August 28 Sonoma 100  R  Infineon Raceway Sonoma, California
12 September 11 Chicagoland 100  O  Chicagoland Speedway Joliet, Illinois
13 September 25 Corning 100  R  Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen, New York
14 October 16 California 100  O  California Speedway Fontana, California
O Oval/Speedway
R Road/Street course

Race results

Round Race Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1 Homestead–Miami Speedway United States Travis Gregg New Zealand Wade Cunningham United States Travis Gregg United States Travis Gregg Sam Schmidt Motorsports
2 Phoenix International Raceway United States Travis Gregg United States Chris Festa United States Jon Herb United States Jon Herb Racing Professionals
3 Streets of St. Petersburg United States Marco Andretti New Zealand Wade Cunningham United States Marco Andretti United States Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing
4 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Brazil Jaime Camara United States Jon Herb Brazil Jaime Camara Brazil Jaime Camara Sam Schmidt Motorsports
5 Texas Motor Speedway United States Travis Gregg United States Nick Bussell United States Travis Gregg United States Travis Gregg Sam Schmidt Motorsports
6 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course United States Marco Andretti United States Marco Andretti United States Marco Andretti United States Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing
7 Nashville Superspeedway Brazil Jaime Camara Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. Brazil Jaime Camara Brazil Jaime Camara Sam Schmidt Motorsports
8 Milwaukee Mile Brazil Jaime Camara United States Jay Drake New Zealand Wade Cunningham United States Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing
9 Kentucky Speedway United States Travis Gregg United States Jay Drake United States Travis Gregg United States Travis Gregg Sam Schmidt Motorsports
10 Pikes Peak International Raceway United States Travis Gregg United States Travis Gregg United States Jeff Simmons United States Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing
11 Infineon Raceway United States Marco Andretti United States Jeff Simmons United States Marco Andretti United States Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing
12 Chicagoland Speedway United States Sarah McCune United States Jon Herb United States Jeff Simmons United States Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing
13 Watkins Glen International New Zealand Wade Cunningham New Zealand Wade Cunningham United States Marco Andretti United States Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing
14 California Speedway United States Travis Gregg United States Jeff Simmons New Zealand Wade Cunningham New Zealand Wade Cunningham Brian Stewart Racing

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th   13th   14th   15th   16th   17th   18th   19th 
Points 50 40 35 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
  • The driver who leads the most laps in a race is awarded two additional points.
Pos Driver HOM PHX STP INDY TXS IMS NSH MIL KEN PIK SON CHI WGL FON Points
1 New Zealand Wade Cunningham  RY  4 3 2 2 2 2 4 2* 2 5 2 10 3 1* 504[lower-alpha 1]
2 United States Jeff Simmons 9 12 12 7 8 13 2 1 5 1* 3 1* 1 2 474
3 United States Travis Gregg  R  1* 6 6 6 1* 7 10 8 1* 3 6 5 12 3 462
4 United States Nick Bussell  R  6 5 3 15 5 4 5 3 6 2 4 3 5 5 430
5 Brazil Jaime Camara  R  2 11 13 1* 9 5 1* 5 8 9 12 6 7 10 403
6 United States Chris Festa 10 2 8 8 3 3 7 10 9 6 5 11 4 4 387
7 United States Jon Herb 3 1* 11 13 7 9 6 4 11 11 9 4 11 9 364
8 Canada Marty Roth 7 10 9 5 6 8 11 9 7 7 7 2 10 7 355
9 United States Jay Drake  R  5 13 10 3 4 10 3 6 4 8 8 7 12 341
10 United States Marco Andretti  R  1* 16 1* 3 1* 2* 250
11 Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. 4 5 10 6 8 7 10 10 6 228
12 United States Alfred Unser 12 8 4 4 106
13 United States Mishael Abbott  R  8 9 11 12 83
14 United States Bobby Wilson  R  11 8 9 13 82
15 United States Scott Mayer  R  7 11 13 12 80
16 Canada Tom Wood 12 12 4 68
17 United States P. J. Chesson 11 14 7 61
18 United States P. J. Abbott  R  11 8 43
19 United States Taylor Fletcher 9 11 41
20 United States Larry Connor  R  14 8 40
21 United Kingdom Scott Mansell  R  10 14 36
22 United States Phil Giebler 6 28
23 United States Sarah McCune  R  9 23
24 United States Jerry Coons Jr.  R  9 22
25 Mexico Germán Quiroga  R  10 20
26 United States Ed Carpenter 11 19
27 United States Rocco DeSimone  R  13 17
28 India Imran Husain  R  14 16
29 United States Geoff Dodge  R  14 16
30 United States G. J. Mennen 15 15
31 United States Rocky Moran Jr. 17 13
32 United States Cole Carter  R  18 12
Pos Driver HOM PHX STP INDY TXS IMS NSH MIL KEN PIK SON CHI WGL FON Points
Color Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green 4th & 5th place
Light Blue 6th–10th place
Dark Blue Finished

(Outside Top 10)

Purple Did not finish
Red Did not qualify

(DNQ)

Brown Withdrawn

(Wth)

Black Disqualified

(DSQ)

White Did not start

(DNS)

Blank Did not

participate (DNP)

Not competing
In-line notation
Bold Pole position
Italics Ran fastest race lap
* Led most race laps

(2 points)

1 Qualifying cancelled
  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

Footnotes

    1. 15 point deduction for reckless and overly-aggressive driving at California

    References

    1. Henry, N.; Angus, T.; Jenkins, M. (2007). Motorsport Going Global: The Challenges Facing the World's Motorsport Industry. p. 23. ISBN 978-0230593381.
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