The 2006 IRL Indy Pro Series, was the fifth season of the developmental open-wheel racing series under the Indy Racing League ownership, and the 21st in Indy NXT combined history, as officially recognized by IndyCar. Both Menards and Nissan dropped their sponsorship of the series, which was renamed to Indy Pro Series for the following two years. It was the first season to include double-header races in road course races. All teams used Dallara IL-02 chassis, now with the unbranded TWR engines, as they would remain until the end of its use in 2014.

2006 Indy Pro Series season
Indy Pro Series
Season
Races12
Start dateMarch 26
End dateSeptember 9
Awards
Drivers' championUnited Kingdom Jay Howard
Teams' championUnited States Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Rookie of the YearUnited Kingdom Jay Howard
← 2005
2007 →

English rookie Jay 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.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3]

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

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Team No. Drivers Rounds
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 Orsi 8
52   Nick Bussell All
Part Sourcing International 76   James Chesson 4, 7
  Mike Potekhen 6, 9–12

Schedule

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The schedule downsized from 14 to 12 races, as the series moved to a 50-50 proportion on ovals and road courses. The ovals at 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. Date Race name Track Location
1 March 26 Miami 100  O  Homestead–Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida
2 April 1–2 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg  R  Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
3
4 May 26 Freedom 100  O  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
5 June 4 Corning 100  R  Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen, New York
6 July 1 Liberty Challenge  R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course Speedway, Indiana
7 July 15 Sun Belt Rentals 100  O  Nashville Superspeedway Lebanon, Tennessee
8 July 22 Milwaukee 100  O  Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin
9 August 13 Kentucky 100  O  Kentucky Speedway Sparta, Kentucky
10 August 26–27 Carneros 100  R  Infineon Raceway Sonoma, California
11 Valley of the Moon 100
12 September 9 Chicagoland 100  O  Chicagoland Speedway Joliet, Illinois
O Oval/Speedway
R Road/Street course

Race results

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Round Race Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1 Homestead–Miami Speedway   Jay Howard   Jon Herb   Jay Howard   Jeff Simmons Kenn Hardley Racing
2 Streets of St. Petersburg   Raphael Matos   Raphael Matos   Raphael Matos   Raphael Matos Guthrie Racing
3   Chris Festa[a]   Raphael Matos   Raphael Matos   Raphael Matos Guthrie Racing
4 Indianapolis Motor Speedway   Wade Cunningham   Jay Howard   Wade Cunningham   Wade Cunningham Brian Stewart Racing
5 Watkins Glen International   Bobby Wilson   Bobby Wilson   Wade Cunningham   Bobby Wilson Kenn Hardley Racing
6 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course   Graham Rahal   Alex Lloyd   Graham Rahal   Alex Lloyd AFS Racing
7 Nashville Superspeedway   Wade Cunningham   Wade Cunningham   Wade Cunningham   Jay Howard Sam Schmidt Motorsports
8 Milwaukee Mile   Wade Cunningham   Wade Cunningham   Wade Cunningham   Jaime Camara Andretti Green Racing
9 Kentucky Speedway   Jonathan Klein   Bobby Wilson   Wade Cunningham   Jay Howard Sam Schmidt Motorsports
10 Infineon Raceway   Wade Cunningham   Alex Lloyd   Wade Cunningham   Wade Cunningham Brian Stewart Racing
11   Mike Potekhen[a]   Wade Cunningham   Alex Lloyd   Alex Lloyd AFS Racing
12 Chicagoland Speedway   Jay Howard   Tom Wood   Wade Cunningham   Wade Cunningham Brian Stewart Racing

Championship standings

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Drivers' Championship

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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 (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  RY  3* 3 2 2 6 18 1 7 1 10 5 3 390
2   Jonathan Klein  R  15 5 5 6 5 3 3 3 2 4 3 2 386
3   Wade Cunningham 10 1* 2* 16 5* 2* 3* 1* 4 1* 379
4   Bobby Wilson  R  5 8 6 7 1 9 7 4 7 5 2 17 343
5   Nick Bussell 2 4 10 10 15 5 6 5 6 3 13 8 319
6   Jaime Camara 11 12 13 3 4 13 2 1 14 7 14 16 298
7   Alex Lloyd  R  10 3 5 17 1 DNS 16 2 1* 4 294
8   Chris Festa 16 6 8i 4 14 15 9 8 5 205
9   Brett Van Blankers  R  8 9 11 14 7 17 10 8 15 179
10   Raphael Matos  R  1* 1* 13 4 154
11   Jon Herb 6 13 9 19 8 8 126
12   Jeff Simmons 1 2 4 122
13   Mike Potekhen  R  11 10 6 6i 7 121
14   Tom Wood 9 4 9 12 9 116
15   Arie Luyendyk Jr. 4 DNS 11 11 6 105
16   Matthew Hamilton  R  14 7 7 13 10 105
17   Geoff Dodge  R  7 11 13 8 12 104
18   Sean Guthrie  R  11 16 8 5 18 99
19   C. R. Crews  R  9 6 11 13 86
20   Scott Mansell  R  14 14 11 7 77
21   Phil Giebler 16 3 7 75
22   Shinji Kashima  R  13 12 11 12 72
23   Travis Gregg 12 13 4 67
24   Marty Roth 9 14 12 56
25   P. J. Abbott 11 13 12 54
26   Ryan Justice  R  8 8 48
26   Mishael Abbott 13 17 12 48
28   Graham Rahal  R  2* 43
29   Micky Gilbert  R  9 10 42
29   Ben Petter  R  9 10 42
31   Daniel Gaunt  R  14 9 38
32   Tom Wieringa 12 15 33
33   Rocco DeSimone  R  15 14 31
34   Thiago Medeiros 6 28
35   Michael Crawford  R  10 20
35   Logan Gomez  R  10 20
37   Veronica McCann  R  11 19
37   James Chesson 18 DNS 19
39   Éric Paradis  R  12 18
40   Akihira Okamoto  R  14 16
41   Tyce Carlson 15 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 not
participate
(DNP)
Not competing
In-line notation
Bold Pole position
(1 point)
Italics Ran fastest race lap
* Led most race laps
(2 points)
i Partially-inverted field
no bonus point awarded
Rookie of the Year
Rookie
  • Ties in points broken by
    number of wins, or best
    finishes.

Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b In doubleheader weekends, no qualifying was held for Race 2. The grid was decided by the results of Race 1, with the top 6 finishers in reverse order, and no bonus point was awarded for pole position.

References

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  1. ^ "Howard Captures First Career IRL Indy Pro Series Championship at Chicagoland Speedway". Chicagoland Speedway. 2006-09-09. Archived from the original on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
  2. ^ "IPS: St. Pete: Friday practice notes". Motorsport.com. 2006-01-04. Archived from the original on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
  3. ^ "IRL Lloyd beats heat & Rahal ." Racecar.com. 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
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