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 TeamDriversRoundsSam Schmidt Motorsports1 Jaime CamaraAll7 Travis GreggAll8 Sarah McCune1211 Tom Wood4 P. J. Abbott5, 14 Rocco DeSimone1319 Chris FestaAllBrian Stewart Racing3 Alfred Unser1–4 Arie Luyendyk Jr.5–10 Bobby Wilson11–1433 Wade CunninghamAllRoth Racing4 Marty RothAllAFS Racing5 Arie Luyendyk Jr.2–3251427 G. J. Mennen2 Rocky Moran Jr.4 Geoff Dodge14Racing Professionals6 Jon HerbAllVision Racing9 Ed Carpenter6 Nick Bussell7–1420 Jay Drake1–12, 14 Phil Giebler13Michael Crawford Motorsports11 Scott Mayer2, 8, 11–12J. L. West Motorsports21 Nick Bussell1–6Dave McMillan Racing22 Scott Mansell11, 13Bullet-Team Motorsports23 Taylor Fletcher4, 14Kenn Hardley Racing24 Jeff SimmonsAll42 Germán Quiroga4 Tom Wood7, 10Andretti Green Racing26 Marco Andretti3–4, 6, 9, 11, 13Genoa Racing36 P. J. Chesson1–3 Imran Husain4 Larry Connor6, 13Hemelgarn Racing42 Mishael Abbott1912, 4, 6 Jerry Coons Jr.7American Revolution Racing77 Cole Carter4
Schedule
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.DateRace nameTrackLocation1March 6Homestead-Miami 100 Homestead–Miami SpeedwayHomestead, Florida2March 19Phoenix 100 Phoenix International RacewayAvondale, Arizona3April 3Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Streets of St. PetersburgSt. Petersburg, Florida4May 27Futaba Freedom 100 Indianapolis Motor SpeedwaySpeedway, Indiana5June 11Firestone 100 Texas Motor SpeedwayFort Worth, Texas6June 18Liberty Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway road courseSpeedway, Indiana7July 16Cleanevent 100 Nashville SuperspeedwayLebanon, Tennessee8July 24Milwaukee 100 Milwaukee MileWest Allis, Wisconsin9August 13Bluegrass 100 Kentucky SpeedwaySparta, Kentucky10August 21Pikes Peak 100 Pikes Peak International RacewayFountain, Colorado11August 28Sonoma 100 Infineon RacewaySonoma, California12September 11Chicagoland 100 Chicagoland SpeedwayJoliet, Illinois13September 25Corning 100 Watkins Glen InternationalWatkins Glen, New York14October 16California 100 California SpeedwayFontana, California
Race results RoundRacePole positionFastest lapMost laps ledRace WinnerDriverTeam1Homestead–Miami Speedway Travis Gregg Travis Gregg Travis Gregg2Phoenix International Raceway Travis Gregg Chris Festa Jon Herb Jon HerbRacing Professionals3Streets of St. Petersburg Marco Andretti Wade Cunningham Marco Andretti Marco AndrettiAndretti Green Racing4Indianapolis Motor Speedway Jaime Camara Jon Herb Jaime Camara Jaime CamaraSam Schmidt Motorsports5Texas Motor Speedway Travis Gregg Nick Bussell Travis Gregg Travis GreggSam Schmidt Motorsports6 Marco Andretti Marco Andretti Marco Andretti Marco AndrettiAndretti Green Racing7Nashville Superspeedway Jaime Camara Arie Luyendyk Jr. Jaime Camara Jaime CamaraSam Schmidt Motorsports8Milwaukee Mile Jaime Camara Jay Drake Wade Cunningham Jeff SimmonsKenn Hardley Racing9Kentucky Speedway Travis Gregg Jay Drake Travis Gregg Travis GreggSam Schmidt Motorsports10Pikes Peak International Raceway Travis Gregg Travis Gregg Jeff Simmons Jeff SimmonsKenn Hardley Racing11Infineon Raceway Marco Andretti Jeff Simmons Marco Andretti Marco AndrettiAndretti Green Racing12Chicagoland Speedway Sarah McCune Jon Herb Jeff Simmons Jeff SimmonsKenn Hardley Racing13Watkins Glen International Wade Cunningham Marco Andretti Jeff SimmonsKenn Hardley Racing14California Speedway Travis Gregg Jeff SimmonsBrian 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. The driver who leads the most laps in a race is awarded two additional points.
PosDriverHOMPHXSTPINDYTXSIMSNSHMILKENPIKSONCHIWGLFONPoints143222242*2521031*5042 Jeff Simmons9121278132151*31*124743 Travis Gregg 1*6661*71081*3651234624 Nick Bussell 6531554536243554305 Jaime Camara 211131*951*5891267104036 Chris Festa102883371096511443877 Jon Herb31*111379641111941193648 Marty Roth710956811977721073559 Jay Drake 5131034103648871234110 Marco Andretti 1*161*31*2*25011 Arie Luyendyk Jr.45106871010622812 Alfred Unser1284410613 Mishael Abbott 891112 8314 Bobby Wilson 1189138215 Scott Mayer 71113128016 Tom Wood121246817 P. J. Chesson 111476118 P. J. Abbott 1184319 Taylor Fletcher9114120 Larry Connor 1484021 Scott Mansell 10143622 Phil Giebler62823 Sarah McCune 92324 Jerry Coons Jr. 92225 Germán Quiroga 102026 Ed Carpenter111927 Rocco DeSimone 131728 Imran Husain 141629 Geoff Dodge 141630 G. J. Mennen151531 Rocky Moran Jr.171332 Cole Carter 1812PosDriverHOMPHXSTPINDYTXSIMSNSHMILKENPIKSONCHIWGLFONPointsColorResultGoldWinnerSilver2nd placeBronze3rd placeGreen4th & 5th placeLight Blue6th–10th placeDark BlueFinished (Outside Top 10)PurpleDid not finishRedDid not qualify (DNQ)BrownWithdrawn (Wth)BlackDisqualified (DSQ)WhiteDid not start (DNS)BlankDid not participate (DNP)Not competing In-line notationBoldPole position (1 point)ItalicsRan fastest race lap*Led most race laps (2 points)1Qualifying cancelled
Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.
Footnotes
References