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.[1]
Champion Wade Cunningham at St. PetersburgInfiniti 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.
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 1United 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.
Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.
Footnotesedit
^15 point deduction for reckless and overly-aggressive driving at California
Referencesedit
^Henry, N.; Angus, T.; Jenkins, M. (2007). Motorsport Going Global: The Challenges Facing the World's Motorsport Industry. p. 23. ISBN978-0230593381.
^ ab"IRL Infiniti Pro Series – 2005: Point standings". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
January 01, 1970
2005, infiniti, series, 2005, menards, infiniti, series, fourth, season, series, under, indy, racing, league, ownership, 20th, indy, combined, history, officially, recognized, indycar, teams, used, dallara, chassis, infiniti, engines, combination, that, raced,. 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 1 2005 Infiniti Pro Series seasonInfiniti Pro SeriesSeasonRaces14Start dateMarch 6End dateOctober 16AwardsDrivers championWade CunninghamTeams championBrian Stewart RacingRookie of the YearWade Cunningham 20042006 Champion Wade Cunningham at St PetersburgInfiniti 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 Contents 1 Team and driver chart 2 Schedule 3 Race results 4 Championship standings 4 1 Drivers Championship 5 Footnotes 6 ReferencesTeam and driver chart editTeam No Drivers Rounds Sam Schmidt Motorsports 1 nbsp Jaime Camara All 7 nbsp Travis Gregg All 8 nbsp Sarah McCune 12 11 nbsp Tom Wood 4 nbsp P J Abbott 5 14 nbsp Rocco DeSimone 13 19 nbsp Chris Festa All Brian Stewart Racing 3 nbsp Alfred Unser 1 4 nbsp Arie Luyendyk Jr 5 10 nbsp Bobby Wilson 11 14 33 nbsp Wade Cunningham All Roth Racing 4 nbsp Marty Roth All AFS Racing 5 nbsp Arie Luyendyk Jr 2 3 25 14 27 nbsp G J Mennen 2 nbsp Rocky Moran Jr 4 nbsp Geoff Dodge 14 Racing Professionals 6 nbsp Jon Herb All Vision Racing 9 nbsp Ed Carpenter 6 nbsp Nick Bussell 7 14 20 nbsp Jay Drake 1 12 14 nbsp Phil Giebler 13 Michael Crawford Motorsports 11 nbsp Scott Mayer 2 8 11 12 J L West Motorsports 21 nbsp Nick Bussell 1 6 Dave McMillan Racing 22 nbsp Scott Mansell 11 13 Bullet Team Motorsports 23 nbsp Taylor Fletcher 4 14 Kenn Hardley Racing 24 nbsp Jeff Simmons All 42 nbsp German Quiroga 4 nbsp Tom Wood 7 10 Andretti Green Racing 26 nbsp Marco Andretti 3 4 6 9 11 13 Genoa Racing 36 nbsp P J Chesson 1 3 nbsp Imran Husain 4 nbsp Larry Connor 6 13 Hemelgarn Racing 42 nbsp Mishael Abbott 1 91 2 4 6 nbsp Jerry Coons Jr 7 American Revolution Racing 77 nbsp Cole Carter 4Schedule edit nbsp 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 courseRace results editRound Race Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race Winner Driver Team 1 Homestead Miami Speedway nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Wade Cunningham nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Travis Gregg Sam Schmidt Motorsports 2 Phoenix International Raceway nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Chris Festa nbsp Jon Herb nbsp Jon Herb Racing Professionals 3 Streets of St Petersburg nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Wade Cunningham nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing 4 Indianapolis Motor Speedway nbsp Jaime Camara nbsp Jon Herb nbsp Jaime Camara nbsp Jaime Camara Sam Schmidt Motorsports 5 Texas Motor Speedway nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Nick Bussell nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Travis Gregg Sam Schmidt Motorsports 6 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing 7 Nashville Superspeedway nbsp Jaime Camara nbsp Arie Luyendyk Jr nbsp Jaime Camara nbsp Jaime Camara Sam Schmidt Motorsports 8 Milwaukee Mile nbsp Jaime Camara nbsp Jay Drake nbsp Wade Cunningham nbsp Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing 9 Kentucky Speedway nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Jay Drake nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Travis Gregg Sam Schmidt Motorsports 10 Pikes Peak International Raceway nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Jeff Simmons nbsp Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing 11 Infineon Raceway nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Jeff Simmons nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing 12 Chicagoland Speedway nbsp Sarah McCune nbsp Jon Herb nbsp Jeff Simmons nbsp Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing 13 Watkins Glen International nbsp Wade Cunningham nbsp Wade Cunningham nbsp Marco Andretti nbsp Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing 14 California Speedway nbsp Travis Gregg nbsp Jeff Simmons nbsp Wade Cunningham nbsp Wade Cunningham Brian Stewart RacingChampionship standings editDrivers Championship edit Scoring system 2 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 2 Pos Driver HOM PHX STP INDY TXS IMS NSH MIL KEN PIK SON CHI WGL FON Points 1 nbsp Wade Cunningham RY 4 3 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 5 2 10 3 1 504 a 2 nbsp Jeff Simmons 9 12 12 7 8 13 2 1 5 1 3 1 1 2 474 3 nbsp Travis Gregg R 1 6 6 6 1 7 10 8 1 3 6 5 12 3 462 4 nbsp Nick Bussell R 6 5 3 15 5 4 5 3 6 2 4 3 5 5 430 5 nbsp Jaime Camara R 2 11 13 1 9 5 1 5 8 9 12 6 7 10 403 6 nbsp Chris Festa 10 2 8 8 3 3 7 10 9 6 5 11 4 4 387 7 nbsp Jon Herb 3 1 11 13 7 9 6 4 11 11 9 4 11 9 364 8 nbsp Marty Roth 7 10 9 5 6 8 11 9 7 7 7 2 10 7 355 9 nbsp Jay Drake R 5 13 10 3 4 10 3 6 4 8 8 7 12 341 10 nbsp Marco Andretti R 1 16 1 3 1 2 250 11 nbsp Arie Luyendyk Jr 4 5 10 6 8 7 10 10 6 228 12 nbsp Alfred Unser 12 8 4 4 106 13 nbsp Mishael Abbott R 8 9 11 12 83 14 nbsp Bobby Wilson R 11 8 9 13 82 15 nbsp Scott Mayer R 7 11 13 12 80 16 nbsp Tom Wood 12 12 4 68 17 nbsp P J Chesson 11 14 7 61 18 nbsp P J Abbott R 11 8 43 19 nbsp Taylor Fletcher 9 11 41 20 nbsp Larry Connor R 14 8 40 21 nbsp Scott Mansell R 10 14 36 22 nbsp Phil Giebler 6 28 23 nbsp Sarah McCune R 9 23 24 nbsp Jerry Coons Jr R 9 22 25 nbsp German Quiroga R 10 20 26 nbsp Ed Carpenter 11 19 27 nbsp Rocco DeSimone R 13 17 28 nbsp Imran Husain R 14 16 29 nbsp Geoff Dodge R 14 16 30 nbsp G J Mennen 15 15 31 nbsp Rocky Moran Jr 17 13 32 nbsp 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 amp 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 edit 15 point deduction for reckless and overly aggressive driving at CaliforniaReferences edit Henry N Angus T Jenkins M 2007 Motorsport Going Global The Challenges Facing the World s Motorsport Industry p 23 ISBN 978 0230593381 a b IRL Infiniti Pro Series 2005 Point standings Speedsport Magazine Retrieved April 2 2024 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 2005 Infiniti Pro Series amp oldid 1217275004, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
