2004 Infiniti Pro Series

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.

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 →

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 and driver chart

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

Schedule

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.

Rd.	Date	Race name	Track	Location
1	February 29	Homestead-Miami 100	Homestead–Miami Speedway	Homestead, Florida
2	March 20	Phoenix 100	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona
3	May 22	Futaba Freedom 100	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana
4	July 3	Aventis Racing for Kids 100	Kansas Speedway	Kansas City, Kansas
5	July 17	Cleanevent 100	Nashville Superspeedway	Lebanon, Tennessee
6	July 25	Milwaukee 100	Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin
7	August 1	Paramount Health Insurance 100	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan
8	August 14	Kentucky 100	Kentucky Speedway	Sparta, Kentucky
9	August 22	Pikes Peak 100	Pikes Peak International Raceway	Fountain, Colorado
10	September 11	Chicago 100	Chicagoland Speedway	Joliet, Illinois
11	October 2	California 100	California Speedway	Fontana, California
12	October 16	Texas 100	Texas Motor Speedway	Fort Worth, Texas

Race results

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[lower-alpha 1]	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

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
Points	50	40	35	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11

• 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[lower-alpha 2] 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.

Footnotes

1. Qualifying for Kansas was cancelled due to rain. The grid was set by entrant points entering the race.
2. 25 point deduction at Texas for causing a debris situation that produced a crash.

References

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2. "Unser Joins Forces With Keith Duesenberg Racing". indyracing.com. June 30, 2004. Archived from the original on August 7, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
3. "Unser, Fonferko Join Forces With Duesenberg". indyracing.com. July 14, 2004. Archived from the original on August 7, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2004.
4. "Youngster In Line for Ride With Stewart Racing". indyracing.com. January 16, 2004. Archived from the original on December 16, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
5. "Roth Points To Running Full Time In 2005 Season". indyracing.com. October 6, 2004. Archived from the original on October 29, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
6. Racecar. "Leo Maia Signs Menards Infiniti Pro Series Deal with Brian Stewart". www.racecar.com. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
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15. "Roquins Keep It All In The Family". indyracing.com. February 28, 2004. Archived from the original on June 27, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
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17. "Foyt hires Simmons to run in Indy Infiniti race". ESPN.com. 2004-05-06. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
18. "Fletcher Joins Field For Futaba Freedom 100". indyracing.com. May 16, 2004. Archived from the original on December 16, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
19. "Pollard Will Join Series Full Time". indyracing.com. January 26, 2004. Archived from the original on December 11, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
20. "IPS News and notes: Simmons to Finish Season with Kenn Hardley Racing". us.motorsport.com. September 29, 2004. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
21. "Teammates Medeiros, Luyendyk Will Start 1-2". indyracing.com. March 19, 2004. Archived from the original on December 11, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
22. "Drake Relishes His Laps On Historic Oval". indyracing.com. April 23, 2004. Archived from the original on August 20, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
23. "Luyendyk Makes Move To AFS Racing". indyracing.com. August 11, 2004. Archived from the original on December 11, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
24. "Peterson's Passion Continues To Grow". indyracing.com. 2004-12-11. Archived from the original on December 11, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
25. "IPS: Mo Nunn Racing enters series". us.motorsport.com. 2004-06-17. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
26. "Nunn doubles up in IPS". www.autosport.com. 2004-08-18. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
27. "IRL news - Dana signs with Hemelgarn for IPS". crash.net. December 18, 2003. Archived from the original on January 13, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
28. "IPS: Indianapolis: Cory Witherill to race in Freedom 100". us.motorsport.com. 2004-05-20. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
29. "Fast Facts - Chicagoland 100". indyracing.com. September 7, 2004. Archived from the original on December 16, 2004. Retrieved October 3, 2003.