2004 Infiniti Pro Series

2004 Infiniti Pro Series season
Infiniti Pro Series
Season
Races	12
Start date	February 29
End date	October 16
Awards
Drivers' champion	Thiago Medeiros
Teams' champion	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Rookie of the Year	P. J. Chesson
← 2003 2005 →

The 2004 Menards IRL Infiniti Pro Series season was the third season of the series under the Indy Racing League ownership, and the 19th in Indy NXT combined history, as officially recognized by IndyCar. All teams used Dallara IL-02 chassis and Infiniti engines.

In his second year of Pro Series competition, Thiago Medeiros won the championship convincingly, giving Sam Schmidt Motorsports its first title. He won six wins, including the second running of the Freedom 100 from pole position, scored seven pole positions and led the most laps in all but two of the 12 races. Medeiros became champion by taking the green flag at the penultimate round in Chicagoland, and finished with a 134-point lead over Paul Dana, who scored his lone Infiniti Pro Series win at Milwaukee.

Despite joining the Infiniti Pro Series at the fourth round in Kansas, rookie P. J. Chesson rallied to a fourth place in the standings, including a three-win streak with newcomers Mo Nunn Racing, an effort instigated and managed by Nunn's wife Kathryn. Despite a penalty at the last round that demoted him behind Arie Luyendyk Jr. in the standings, Chesson won Rookie of the Year over Leonardo Maia by 25 points.

A. J. Foyt Enterprises and Panther Racing, the champions of the previous two editions, left the series, although Foyt entered a car for Jeff Simmons at the Freedom 100, finishing second behind Medeiros. Simmons and Marty Roth became the first drivers to contest the Indianapolis 500 and the Freedom 100 in the same year. Sinden Racing Service and Genoa Racing also left the series entirely, while the privateer effort by Matt Beardsley ceased to be after the Freedom 100. On the other hand, Roquin Motorsports re-expanded to a full time effort, Roth Racing, Racing Professionals and Bullet-Team Motorsports made their debut with partial seasons, apart from Mo Nunn joining the championship at the fourth round.

While the Freedom 100 attracted 17 competitors, the Infiniti Pro Series struggled with entries throughout much of 2004, especially during the summer stretch, with only nine cars and just three finishers at the Milwaukee round. Grid sizes improved over the last three races, with 15 drivers in each round. Only the top 3 drivers in the standings contested the full season, with two others missing one round. Former IndyCar drivers that competed during the season were Billy Roe, Jon Herb, Cory Witherill and Scott Mayer.

Team	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Keith Duesenberg Racing	2	Phil Giebler[1]	1–3, 11
		Alfred Unser[2]	4–10, 12
	22	Ross Fonferko[3]	5
		Phil Giebler	7–9
		P. J. Abbott	12
Brian Stewart Racing	3	Jesse Mason[4]	1–10
		Marty Roth[5]	11
		Ryan Hampton	12
	33	Tony Turco	1
		Leonardo Maia[6]	2–12
Roth Racing[7]	4	Marty Roth	1–3
Sam Schmidt Motorsports	5	Arie Luyendyk Jr.[8]	1–7
		Travis Gregg[9]	8, 10, 12
		Shinji Kashima[10]	11
	11	Thiago Medeiros[11]	All
	64	Brad Pollard[12]	4–6
		Scott Mayer[13]	10, 12
		P. J. Abbott	11
Racing Professionals[14]	6	Jon Herb[14]	3, 11–12
Roquin Motorsports	9	Matt Beardsley	9
	10	Rolando Quintanilla[15]	1–5, 7–12
Beardsley Motorsports	12	Matt Beardsley[16]	1–3
A. J. Foyt Enterprises	14	Jeff Simmons[17]	3
Bullet-Team Motorsports[18]	21	Taylor Fletcher[18]	3, 10–11
Kenn Hardley Racing	24	Brad Pollard[19]	1–3
		Jeff Simmons[20]	9–12
		Billy Roe[21]	4–8
	42		2–3
AFS Racing	25	Jay Drake[22]	3
		Arie Luyendyk Jr.[23]	10–12
	27		8–9
		Gary Peterson[24]	2–3, 7, 10–12
Mo Nunn Racing[25]	67	James Chesson[26]	10–12
	76	P. J. Chesson[25]	4–12
Hemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports	91	Paul Dana[27]	All
	92	Cory Witherill[28][29]	3, 10

The schedule for 2004 stayed at 12 rounds with minor date changes over 2003. Mirroring the IRL IndyCar Series, the series left Gateway International Raceway and visited the storied Milwaukee Mile, who had featured in the last season of the original Indy Lights championship in 2001. This would be the last all-oval season for the series, as the IRL-managed championship would introduce road course racing from 2005 onwards.

Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Race Winner
					Driver	Team
1	Homestead–Miami Speedway	Phil Giebler	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Phil Giebler	Keith Duesenberg Racing
2	Phoenix International Raceway	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
3	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
4	Kansas Speedway	Thiago Medeiros[a]	Alfred Unser	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
5	Nashville Superspeedway	Thiago Medeiros	Paul Dana	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
6	Milwaukee Mile	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Paul Dana	Hemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports
7	Michigan International Speedway	Al Unser III	Alfred Unser	Thiago Medeiros	P. J. Chesson	Mo Nunn Racing
8	Kentucky Speedway	Travis Gregg	Phil Giebler	Travis Gregg	P. J. Chesson	Mo Nunn Racing
9	Pikes Peak International Raceway	Jeff Simmons	Paul Dana	Paul Dana	P. J. Chesson	Mo Nunn Racing
10	Chicagoland Speedway	Thiago Medeiros	Travis Gregg	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
11	California Speedway	Thiago Medeiros	James Chesson	Thiago Medeiros	James Chesson	Mo Nunn Racing
12	Texas Motor Speedway	Thiago Medeiros	P. J. Chesson	Thiago Medeiros	Thiago Medeiros	Sam Schmidt Motorsports

Scoring system

• The driver who leads the most laps in a race is awarded two additional points.

Pos Driver HOM PHX INDY KAN NSH MIL MIS KEN PIK CHI FON TXS Points 1 Thiago Medeiros 2* 1* 1* 1*1 1* 6* 2* 6 3 1* 9* 1* 513 2 Paul Dana 8 5 10 2 2 1 4 2 2* 8 12 11 379 3 Arie Luyendyk Jr. 9 2 3 7 11 9 8 4 5 4 14 4 330 4 P. J. Chesson  RY  8 6 2 1 1 1 5 2 5 317[b] 5 Leonardo Maia  R  3 6 10 10 7 7 3 7 7 4 12 292 6 Jesse Mason  R  3 4 15 6 3 4 6 8 4 9 283 7 Rolando Quintanilla 6 6 14 4 9 11 7 11 10 5 8 264 8 Alfred Unser  R  3 5 3 3 11 6 3 3 252 9 Phil Giebler  R  1 7 5 5 10 8 3 215 10 Billy Roe 9 9 9 4 8 10 9 164 11 Brad Pollard  R  5 11 11 5 8 5 152 12 Jeff Simmons 2 9 2 10 6 150 13 Gary Peterson 12 13 9 14 8 15 112 14 James Chesson  R  6 1 13 95 15 Travis Gregg  R  5* 13 2 89 16 Matt Beardsley 10 8 8 10 88 17 Marty Roth 7 10 16 11 79 18 Jon Herb  R  17 6 7 67 19 Taylor Fletcher  R  12 11 15 52 20 P. J. Abbott  R  7 9 48 21 Cory Witherill 7 15 41 22 Scott Mayer  R  12 10 38 23 Tony Turco 4 32 24 Jay Drake  R  4 32 25 Ross Fonferko  R  7 26 26 Shinji Kashima  R  13 17 27 Ryan Hampton 14 16 Pos Driver HOM PHX INDY KAN NSH MIL MIS KEN PIK CHI FON TXS 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 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.