2005 Infiniti Pro Series

File:WadeCunningham2005.jpg

Champion Wade Cunningham at St. Petersburg

File:Menards Infiniti Pro Series color.png

Infiniti Pro Series logo.

The 2005 Menards 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.

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	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	All
	7	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	All
	8	Template:Flagicon Sarah McCune	12
	11	Template:Flagicon Tom Wood	4
		Template:Flagicon P. J. Abbott	5, 14
		Template:Flagicon Rocco DeSimone	13
	19	Template:Flagicon Chris Festa	All
Brian Stewart Racing	3	Template:Flagicon Alfred Unser	1–4
		Template:Flagicon Arie Luyendyk Jr.	5–10
		Template:Flagicon Bobby Wilson	11–14
	33	Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham	All
Roth Racing	4	Template:Flagicon Marty Roth	All
AFS Racing	5	Template:Flagicon Arie Luyendyk Jr.	2–3
	25		14
	27	Template:Flagicon G. J. Mennen	2
		Template:Flagicon Rocky Moran Jr.	4
		Template:Flagicon Geoff Dodge	14
Racing Professionals	6	Template:Flagicon Jon Herb	All
Vision Racing	9	Template:Flagicon Ed Carpenter	6
		Template:Flagicon Nick Bussell	7–14
	20	Template:Flagicon Jay Drake	1–12, 14
		Template:Flagicon Phil Giebler	13
Michael Crawford Motorsports	11	Template:Flagicon Scott Mayer	2, 8, 11–12
J. L. West Motorsports	21	Template:Flagicon Nick Bussell	1–6
Dave McMillan Racing	22	Template:Flagicon Scott Mansell	11, 13
Bullet-Team Motorsports	23	Template:Flagicon Taylor Fletcher	4, 14
Kenn Hardley Racing	24	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	All
	42	Template:Flagicon Germán Quiroga	4
		Template:Flagicon Tom Wood	7, 10
Andretti Green Racing	26	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	3–4, 6, 9, 11, 13
Genoa Racing	36	Template:Flagicon P. J. Chesson	1–3
		Template:Flagicon Imran Husain	4
		Template:Flagicon Larry Connor	6, 13
Hemelgarn Racing	42	Template:Flagicon Mishael Abbott	1
	91		2, 4, 6
		Template:Flagicon Jerry Coons Jr.	7
American Revolution Racing	77	Template:Flagicon Cole Carter	4

Schedule

File:FestaLuyendykRoth2005.jpg

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

 Oval/Speedway

 Road/Street course

Race results

Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Race Winner
					Driver	Team
1	Homestead–Miami Speedway	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
2	Phoenix International Raceway	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Chris Festa	Template:Flagicon Jon Herb	Template:Flagicon Jon Herb	Racing Professionals
3	Streets of St. Petersburg	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing
4	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	Template:Flagicon Jon Herb	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
5	Texas Motor Speedway	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Nick Bussell	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
6	Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing
7	Nashville Superspeedway	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	Template:Flagicon Arie Luyendyk Jr.	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
8	Milwaukee Mile	Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara	Template:Flagicon Jay Drake	Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Kenn Hardley Racing
9	Kentucky Speedway	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Jay Drake	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
10	Pikes Peak International Raceway	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Kenn Hardley Racing
11	Infineon Raceway	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing
12	Chicagoland Speedway	Template:Flagicon Sarah McCune	Template:Flagicon Jon Herb	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Kenn Hardley Racing
13	Watkins Glen International	Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham	Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham	Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Kenn Hardley Racing
14	California Speedway	Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg	Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons	Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham	Template:Flagicon 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 starts on pole is awarded one point.
• 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 Template:Flagicon Wade Cunningham  RY  4 3 2 2 2 2 4 2* 2 5 2 10 3 1* 504Template:Efn 2 Template:Flagicon Jeff Simmons 9 12 12 7 8 13 2 1 5 1* 3 1* 1 2 474 3 Template:Flagicon Travis Gregg  R  1* 6 6 6 1* 7 10 8 1* 3 6 5 12 3 462 4 Template:Flagicon Nick Bussell  R  6 5 3 15 5 4 5 3 6 2 4 3 5 5 430 5 Template:Flagicon Jaime Camara  R  2 11 13 1* 9 5 1* 5 8 9 12 6 7 10 403 6 Template:Flagicon Chris Festa 10 2 8 8 3 3 7 10 9 6 5 11 4 4 387 7 Template:Flagicon Jon Herb 3 1* 11 13 7 9 6 4 11 11 9 4 11 9 364 8 Template:Flagicon Marty Roth 7 10 9 5 6 8 11 9 7 7 7 2 10 7 355 9 Template:Flagicon Jay Drake  R  5 13 10 3 4 10 3 6 4 8 8 7 12 341 10 Template:Flagicon Marco Andretti  R  1* 16 1* 3 1* 2* 250 11 Template:Flagicon Arie Luyendyk Jr. 4 5 10 6 8 7 10 10 6 228 12 Template:Flagicon Alfred Unser 12 8 4 4 106 13 Template:Flagicon Mishael Abbott  R  8 9 11 12 83 14 Template:Flagicon Bobby Wilson  R  11 8 9 13 82 15 Template:Flagicon Scott Mayer  R  7 11 13 12 80 16 Template:Flagicon Tom Wood 12 12 4 68 17 Template:Flagicon P. J. Chesson 11 14 7 61 18 Template:Flagicon P. J. Abbott  R  11 8 43 19 Template:Flagicon Taylor Fletcher 9 11 41 20 Template:Flagicon Larry Connor  R  14 8 40 21 Template:Flagicon Scott Mansell  R  10 14 36 22 Template:Flagicon Phil Giebler 6 28 23 Template:Flagicon Sarah McCune  R  9 23 24 Template:Flagicon Jerry Coons Jr.  R  9 22 25 Template:Flagicon Germán Quiroga  R  10 20 26 Template:Flagicon Ed Carpenter 11 19 27 Template:Flagicon Rocco DeSimone  R  13 17 28 Template:Flagicon Imran Husain  R  14 16 29 Template:Flagicon Geoff Dodge  R  14 16 30 Template:Flagicon G. J. Mennen 15 15 31 Template:Flagicon Rocky Moran Jr. 17 13 32 Template:Flagicon 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 (1 point) 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.