The 2006 Indy Pro Series was the 21st season of Indy Pro Series motor racing competition, the fifth season under Indy Racing League sanctioning, and the first season to be held under the "Indy Pro Series" moniker after Menards and Infiniti withdrew their title sponsorship of the series. The season featured twelve rounds between March 26 and September 9. The Drivers' Championship was won by rookie driver Jay Howard, his first and only championship in the Indy Pro Series.

English rookie Howard, driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports narrowly won the championship by four points over American rookie Jonathan Klein of Andretti Green Racing, in a four-way battle for the title at the last round in Chicagoland Speedway that included the defending series champion Wade Cunningham and Bobby Wilson.

Following in the footsteps of Cunningham, Howard prevailed through sheer consistency rather than outright brilliance, with seven podium finishes and two wins at Nashville and Kentucky. All of his wins and pole positions came at oval events, which only comprised half of the schedule.

Klein didn't manage to win a race, and only led a handful of laps during the year, but six podium finishes over the last seven races kept him in contention until the end. Cunningham, driving for Brian Stewart Racing, was also in contention at the final round despite missing the doubleheader at St. Petersburg due to an appendix removal. Cunningham won three races, including the first of his three Freedom 100 victories, scored four pole positions and led the most laps in seven of the 10 races he contested, but couldn't overcome the 93-point deficit to Howard after St. Petersburg and fell 11 points short. Besides, his win over at Chicagoland over Klein allowed Howard to win the championship. An early crash took Bobby Wilson out of contention, finishing fourth in the standings with a win at Watkins Glen.

Seven different drivers won a race during the year, including Jeff Simmons, who left the series as the points leader after three races to drive in IndyCar, and rookie Alex Lloyd, with two road course wins at Indianapolis and Sonoma. Lloyd would miss three races due to funding issues, and finished seventh in points.

Two competitors from the Atlantic Championship made successful cameos during the year, with Brazilian rookie Raphael Matos sweeping the race weekend at St. Petersburg and Graham Rahal getting the pole position at the Liberty Challenge to finish second behind Lloyd, coming two laps short of winning in his only Indy Pro Series start.

Vision Racing disbanded their Indy Pro Series programme after one year, but the series was bolstered by an increase of price money and a host of new teams, led by the expansion of the Andretti Green Racing programme and the debut of Cheever Racing and Guthrie Racing.

Other teams that expanded to a full-time effort were Michael Crawford Racing, AFS Racing and Dave McMillan Racing, although the latter scaled back during the year. The series had 16 to 18 cars at most of his rounds, with 19 starters at the Freedom 100, but only 11 at Milwaukee and 14 at the Sonoma races. 41 different drivers competed during the year, tying the all-time record from 1996 at the time, but only six drivers started all twelve races, with three others missing two or less events. Former Indy 500 starters Jon Herb and Tyce Carlson competed at the Freedom 100.

Drivers and teams The following drivers and teams took part in the 2006 Indy Pro Series. All teams competed with Dallara IPS chassis, Tom Walkinshaw Racing-modified Infiniti engines, and Firestone tires. TeamDriversRounds Brian Stewart Racing 1 Wade Cunningham 1, 4–12 Geoff Dodge 2–3 33 1, 4, 7 3 Brett Van Blankers 1–9 Daniel Gaunt 10–11 Veronica McCann 12 Dave McMillan Racing 2 Matthew Hamilton 1–5 C. R. Crews 12 22 Éric Paradis 6 Roth Racing 4 Marty Roth 1–3 Guthrie Racing 4 Phil Giebler 4 Logan Gomez 6 C. R. Crews 9 Micky Gilbert 10–11 Tom Wieringa 12 Sean Guthrie 5 41 4, 7, 9, 12 Travis Gregg 1 Raphael Matos 2–3, 5–6 Scott Mansell 10–11 Racing Professionals 6 Jon Herb 1–6 Sam Schmidt Motorsports 7 Jay Howard All 38 Ryan Justice 10–11 77 Travis Gregg 9 Akihira Okamoto 12 Michael Crawford Motorsports 8 Mishael Abbott 1, 4–5 Rocco DeSimone 2–3 C. R. Crews 6 Scott Mansell 7 P. J. Abbott 8, 10–11 Ben Petter 9, 12 9 Bobby Wilson 1–3 Tom Wieringa 4 C. R. Crews 5 Scott Mansell 6 Travis Gregg 7 Michael Crawford 8 Shinji Kashima 9–12 Andretti Green Racing 11 Jaime Camara All 27 Jonathan Klein All Kenn Hardley Racing 24 Jeff Simmons 1–3 Bobby Wilson 4–12 42 Tom Wood 4, 7–9, 12 Phil Giebler 5 Graham Rahal 6 AFS Racing 25 Arie Luyendyk Jr. 1–3, 5, 7, 12 Tyce Carlson 4 Phil Giebler 6 26 Alex Lloyd 2–7, 9–12 Thiago Medeiros 8 Cheever Racing 51 Chris Festa 1–7, 9, 12 Hoover Orsi8 52 Nick Bussell All Part Sourcing International 76 James Chesson 4, 7 Mike Potekhen 6, 9–12 Source:

Team drivers Two teams entered Indy Pro Series competition in 2006.

Schedule The schedule downsized from 14 to 12 races, as the series moved to a 50-50 proportion on ovals and road courses in terms of races. Three ovals were dropped, as Phoenix, Pikes Peak and Fontana were removed after their IndyCar events were discontinued, along with Texas Motor Speedway. In turn, the races at St. Petersburg and Sonoma were turned into doubleheaders, the first of their kind in the combined history of Indy Lights. Homestead-Miami continued as the venue for the season opener, while Chicagoland inherited the season finale slot from California Speedway. Rd.DateRace nameTrackLocation1March 26Miami 100 Homestead–Miami SpeedwayHomestead, Florida2April 1–2Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Streets of St. PetersburgSt. Petersburg, Florida34May 26Freedom 100 Indianapolis Motor SpeedwaySpeedway, Indiana5June 4Corning 100 Watkins Glen InternationalWatkins Glen, New York6July 1Liberty Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway road courseSpeedway, Indiana7July 15Sun Belt Rentals 100 Nashville SuperspeedwayLebanon, Tennessee8July 22Milwaukee 100 Milwaukee MileWest Allis, Wisconsin9August 13Kentucky 100 Kentucky SpeedwaySparta, Kentucky10August 26–27Carneros 100 Infineon RacewaySonoma, California11Valley of the Moon 10012September 9Chicagoland 100 Chicagoland SpeedwayJoliet, Illinois

Race results RoundRacePole positionFastest lapMost laps ledRace WinnerDriverTeam1Homestead–Miami Speedway Jay Howard Jon Herb Jay Howard Jeff SimmonsKenn Hardley Racing2Streets of St. Petersburg Raphael Matos Raphael Matos Raphael Matos Raphael MatosGuthrie Racing3 Chris Festa Raphael Matos Raphael Matos Raphael MatosGuthrie Racing4Indianapolis Motor Speedway Jay HowardBrian Stewart Racing5Watkins Glen International Bobby Wilson Bobby Wilson Wade Cunningham Bobby WilsonKenn Hardley Racing6 Graham Rahal Alex Lloyd Graham Rahal Alex LloydAFS Racing7Nashville Superspeedway Wade Cunningham Wade Cunningham Jay Howard8Milwaukee Mile Wade Cunningham Wade Cunningham Wade Cunningham Jaime CamaraAndretti Green Racing9Kentucky Speedway Jonathan Klein Bobby Wilson Wade Cunningham Jay HowardSam Schmidt Motorsports10Infineon Raceway Wade Cunningham Alex Lloyd Wade Cunningham Wade CunninghamBrian Stewart Racing11 Mike Potekhen Wade Cunningham Alex Lloyd Alex LloydAFS Racing12Chicagoland Speedway Jay Howard Tom Wood Wade Cunningham Wade CunninghamBrian 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 Points50403532302826242220191817161514131211

The driver who starts on pole is awarded one point (except for Race 2 of doubleheader weekends) The driver who leads the most laps in a race is awarded two additional points.

Pos Driver HMS STP INDY WGL IMS NAS MIL KTY SNM CHI Points 1 Jay Howard 3*3226181711053 390 2 Jonathan Klein 1555653332432 386 3 Wade Cunningham101*2*165*2*3*1*41* 379 4 Bobby Wilson 5867197475217 343 5 Nick Bussell2410101556563138 319 6 Jaime Camara1112153413211471416 298 7 Alex Lloyd 1035171DNS1621*4 294 8 Chris Festa1668i41415985 205 9 Brett Van Blankers 89111471710815 179 10 Raphael Matos 1*1*134 154 11 Jon Herb61391988 126 12 Jeff Simmons124 122 13 Mike Potekhen 111066i7 121 14 Tom Wood949129 116 15 Arie Luyendyk Jr.4DNS11116 105 16 Matthew Hamilton 14771310 105 17 Geoff Dodge 71113812 104 18 Sean Guthrie 11168518 99 19 C. R. Crews 961113 86 20 Scott Mansell 1414117 77 21 Phil Giebler1637 75 22 Shinji Kashima 13121112 72 23 Travis Gregg12134 67 24 Marty Roth91412 56 25 P. J. Abbott111312 54 26 Ryan Justice 88 48 26 Mishael Abbott131712 48 28 Graham Rahal 2* 43 29 Micky Gilbert 910 42 29 Ben Petter 910 42 31 Daniel Gaunt 149 38 32 Tom Wieringa1215 33 33 Rocco DeSimone 1514 31 34 Thiago Medeiros6 28 35 Michael Crawford 10 20 35 Logan Gomez 10 20 37 Veronica McCann 11 19 37 James Chesson18DNS 19 39 Éric Paradis 12 18 40 Akihira Okamoto 14 16 41 Tyce Carlson15 15 Hoover Orsi DNS Wth Pos Driver HMS STP INDY WGL IMS NAS MIL KTY SNM CHI 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 notparticipate(DNP) Not competingIn-line notationBoldPole position(1 point)ItalicsRan fastest race lap*Led most race laps(2 points)iPartially-inverted fieldno bonus point awardedRookie of the YearRookie

Ties in points broken bynumber of wins, or bestfinishes.

Footnotes

References

External links IndyCar official site