The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series was the 19th season of the IndyCar Series and the 103rd season of American open wheel racing. Scott Dixon entered the season as the defending IndyCar champion, while Chevrolet entered as the reigning Manufacturers' champion. The season's premier event was the 98th Indianapolis 500, held on Sunday, May 25 and won by Ryan Hunter-Reay.
The season featured eleven different winners, tying an IndyCar record previously set in CART in 2000 and 2001. Heading into the final race of the season at Auto Club Speedway, Will Power led Hélio Castroneves by 51 points. In a race in which a spin by Hunter-Reay produced the only yellow flag, Power finished ninth, while Castroneves – who was penalized for a pit entry violation – finished fourteenth. As a result, Power clinched his first series title by 62 points, and the first drivers' title for Team Penske since Sam Hornish Jr. in 2006. In the manufacturers' championship, Chevrolet successfully defended their title ahead of Honda.
Series news Full-time IndyCar Series entries will begin utilizing mandatory twin-turbocharged V6 engines from 2014 onwards, as it was announced on July 25, 2013. The single-turbocharged engines which was used by Honda in 2012-2013 were officially banned. IZOD terminated its sponsorship after the 2013 season, two years before the end of their contract. On March 14, 2014, IndyCar announced Verizon Wireless as the new title sponsor of the IndyCar Series.
Confirmed entries All chassis were composed of a Dallara DW12 "IndyCar Safety Cell" base chassis, and Dallara aerokit. All teams competed with Firestone tires. On December 21, 2012, Firestone signed a five-year contract extension with IndyCar to be the official supplier for IndyCar through 2018. The original engine lease contracts that were signed by the teams prior to the 2012 season were up for renewal prior to the 2014 season, and several teams switched engine providers for the 2014 season. The list below reflects drivers who competed in the 2014 season. denotes an IndyCar Series rookie. Team Engine Driver(s) Round(s) A. J. Foyt Enterprises Honda 14 Takuma Sato All 41 Martin Plowman 4–5 Andretti Autosport Honda 25 Marco Andretti All 26 Franck Montagny 4 Kurt Busch 5 27 James HinchcliffeAll 28 Ryan Hunter-ReayAllAndretti / HVM 34 Carlos Muñoz All Bryan Herta Autosport Honda 98 Jack Hawksworth All Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 8 Ryan Briscoe All 9 Scott Dixon All 10 Tony Kanaan All 83 Charlie Kimball All Dale Coyne Racing Honda 18 Carlos Huertas All 19 Justin Wilson All 63 Pippa Mann 5Dreyer & Reinbold - Kingdom RacingChevrolet 22 Sage Karam 5 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 20 Mike Conway 1–4, 6–7, 9–10, 13–15, 17 Ed Carpenter 5, 8, 11–12, 16, 18 21 J. R. Hildebrand 5 KV Racing Technology Chevrolet 6 Townsend Bell 533 James Davison 5KVSH Racing 11 Sébastien Bourdais AllKV AFS Racing 17 Sebastián Saavedra All Lazier Partners Racing Chevrolet 91 Buddy Lazier 5 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 15 Graham Rahal All 16 Oriol Servià 2–5 Luca Filippi 9–10, 13–14 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda 67 Josef Newgarden All 68 Alex Tagliani 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 5 Jacques Villeneuve 5 7 Mikhail Aleshin All 77 Simon Pagenaud All Team Penske Chevrolet 2 Juan Pablo MontoyaAll 3 Hélio CastronevesAll 12 Will Power All
Team and driver news Juan Pablo Montoya returned to IndyCar in 2014 after a 13-year absence, driving the No. 2 Chevrolet, for Team Penske. Due to his previous CART experience, he was not considered as a rookie. Another Colombian driver, Indy 500 runner-up Carlos Muñoz, debuted full-time with Andretti Autosport in their fourth car for the 2014 season, replacing E. J. Viso. Chip Ganassi Racing switched to Chevrolet engines, having used Honda engines since 2006. Tony Kanaan left KV Racing Technology and joined Chip Ganassi Racing to replace the retired Dario Franchitti. Sébastien Bourdais left Dragon Racing for KV Racing Technology in a 2-year deal. Bourdais' teammate at Dragon, Sebastián Saavedra, was announced as his teammate at KV on February 12. Andretti Autosport returned to racing with full-works Honda engines in a multi-year deal, after running Chevrolet engines in 2013. Andretti Autosport received free engines from Honda and thus earned full factory support from Honda Performance Development. Dario Franchitti announced his retirement from motorsport on the medical advice of his doctors following his accident in the Sunday race of the 2013 Grand Prix of Houston. In December, Kanaan was announced as Franchitti's replacement in the No. 10 car. 2010 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Mikhail Aleshin replaced Tristan Vautier in the second Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entry, becoming the first Russian driver to compete in the series. Ryan Briscoe returned to full-time racing in the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Dragon Racing did not return to run a full-time IndyCar schedule in 2014 in order to prepare the team to compete in the 2014–2015 Formula E season. Simona de Silvestro departed the IndyCar Series after four seasons to take on a testing role with the Sauber F1 team. Panther Racing did not field an entry in the 2014 IndyCar Series after the loss of its National Guard sponsorship to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Schedule The 2014 IndyCar Series schedule was formally announced on NBC Sports Network's INDYCAR Championship Preview Show on October 17, 2013. The schedule consisted of eighteen races, hosted across 15 tracks and 14 venues. Included were three doubleheader events, in Detroit, Houston and Toronto. Also new was a race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway revised road course to kick off the month of May festivities. The IndyCar Triple Crown featured the three 500-mile races, at Indianapolis, Pocono and Fontana, and offered a $1,000,000 bonus to a driver if they won all three events, with a $250,000 consolation prize if a driver won two of the three events. Neither prize was ultimately claimed.
This was the first season since 2002 that the IndyCar Series did not feature international races outside of the United States of America and Canada after the removal of Surfers Paradise (Australia) in 2009, Motegi (Japan) in 2012 and São Paulo (Brazil) in 2014.
Icon Legend Oval/Speedway Road course Street circuit BOLD Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka Triple Crown event.
Rnd Date Race name Track Location 1 March 30 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida 2 April 13 40th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California 3 April 27 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama 4 May 10 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course Speedway, Indiana 5 May 2598th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race Indianapolis Motor Speedway 6 May 31 Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans Belle Isle Detroit, Michigan 7 June 1 8 June 7 Firestone 600K Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas 9 June 28 Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Reliant Park Houston, Texas 10 June 29 11 July 6 Pocono IndyCar 500 fueled by Sunoco Pocono Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania 12 July 12 Iowa Corn Indy 300 presented by DeKalb Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa 13 July 20Honda Indy Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario 14 15 August 3 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio 16 August 17 ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 The Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin 17 August 24 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma Sonoma Raceway Sonoma, California 18 August 30 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships Auto Club Speedway Fontana, California Notes
Calendar changes The event at Pocono Raceway was extended to 500-miles from the 400-miles run in 2013. The event at Texas Motor Speedway was extended to 600-kilometres from the 550-kilometres it ran the past 7 years. The road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, used for the United States Grand Prix in Formula One (2000–2007) and currently the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in MotoGP, held a race on Saturday, May 10; as part of the opening weekend of track activity for the Indianapolis 500. The race ran on a modified version of the Formula One road course, running clockwise around the oval section of the speedway. It also featured a standing start. Opening Day practice for the Indy 500 commenced on Sunday, May 11. The race at Iowa Speedway was extended to a 300 lap event. The Baltimore Street Circuit race weekend did not run due to scheduling conflicts. The São Paulo Indy 300 was removed from the schedule.
Results
Rd.RacePole positionFastest lapMost laps ledRace WinnerReportDriverTeamManufacturer 1 St. Petersburg Takuma Sato Will Power Will Power Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet Report 2 Long Beach Ryan Hunter-Reay Hélio Castroneves Ryan Hunter-Reay Mike Conway Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet Report 3 Birmingham Will Power Scott Dixon Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda Report 4 Indianapolis GP Sebastián Saavedra Scott Dixon Jack Hawksworth Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda Report 5 Indianapolis 500 Ed Carpenter Juan Pablo Montoya Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda Report 6 Detroit 1 Hélio Castroneves Graham Rahal Hélio Castroneves Will Power Team Penske ChevroletReport 7 Detroit 2 Takuma Sato Scott Dixon Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves Team Penske Chevrolet 8 Texas Will Power Tony Kanaan Will Power Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet Report 9 Houston 1 Simon Pagenaud Simon Pagenaud James Hinchcliffe Carlos Huertas Dale Coyne Racing Honda Report 10 Houston 2 Hélio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud Hélio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda 11 Pocono Juan Pablo Montoya Ryan Briscoe Tony Kanaan Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Chevrolet Report 12 Iowa Scott Dixon Josef Newgarden Tony Kanaan Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda Report 13Toronto 1 Sébastien Bourdais Simon Pagenaud Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais KV Racing Technology Chevrolet Report 14 Toronto 2 Hélio Castroneves Juan Pablo Montoya Hélio Castroneves Mike Conway Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 15 Mid-Ohio Sébastien Bourdais Hélio Castroneves Scott Dixon Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Report 16 Milwaukee Will Power Josef Newgarden Will Power Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet Report 17 Sonoma Will Power Hélio Castroneves Will Power Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Report 18 Fontana Hélio Castroneves Will Power Juan Pablo Montoya Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Report
Race summaries
Round 1: St. Petersburg Takuma Sato sat on the pole, but he lost the lead at lap 30 to Will Power. On a restart on lap 82, leader Will Power was bringing the field back to green when an "accordion effect" saw the field check-up on the main stretch. Marco Andretti and rookie Jack Hawksworth made contact and crashed into the inside barrier.
Power led the most laps, and held off Ryan Hunter-Reay and Hélio Castroneves for the victory. Polesitter Takuma Sato finished 6th.
Round 2: Long Beach On lap 56, a controversial crash took out six cars, including the drivers running 1st–2nd–3rd. During a sequence of green flag pit stops, Josef Newgarden inherited the lead. Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, and Will Power were running nose-to-tail in 2nd–3rd–4th. Newgarden completed his pit stop, and came out on the track just ahead of Hunter-Reay, momentarily holding on to the lead. Going into turn 4, Hunter-Reay attempted a risky pass for the lead, and he made contact with Newgarden, sending both cars into the wall. Hinchcliffe was collected, as was three other cars in the huge melee that nearly blocked the track.
Late in the race, Scott Dixon led, followed by Mike Conway and Power close behind. Dixon ran out of fuel, and had to pit with two laps to go. Part timer Conway held off Power and Munoz to win his second Long Beach Grand Prix.
Round 3: Barber