2014 Indy Lights


The 2014 Indy Lights season was a season of open wheel motor racing. It was the 29th season of the Indy Lights series and the 13th sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the IndyCar Series. It began March 30, 2014 in St. Petersburg. The 2014 season was the first promoted by Andersen Promotions, who also promotes the other steps on the Mazda Road to Indy.
It was the final season for the Dallara IPS/Infiniti V8 chassis and engine package that debuted in 2002. A new chassis, to be built by Dallara, will be introduced for 2015 along with an AER turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. 2014 was also the first season with Cooper Tire as the sole tire supplier, replacing Firestone who had supplied tires to the series for its entire previous existence.
Colombian-American Gabby Chaves, driving for Belardi Auto Racing captured the championship on the second tie-breaker over Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Jack Harvey.
Early on, the season appeared to be a two-horse race between Chaves and Andretti Autosport's Zach Veach. However, a late-season charge by Harvey put him within striking distance of the championship. Harvey did not capture his first win until the tenth race of the season. However, Chaves managed a second-place finish in the final race of the season behind Harvey in first. Chaves and Harvey tied on points and on the first tie-breaker number of wins with four each. Chaves captured the championship by having five second-place finishes to Harvey's one. Despite a season of low car-counts where only eight drivers competed in all 14 races, six different drivers captured victories. In addition to Chaves, Harvey, and Veach, other winners included Matthew Brabham and Luiz Razia who each captured their first and only wins of the season on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Belardi's Alexandre Baron – a race-winner in Toronto – who was in the championship hunt until reported visa issues forced him to leave the series.

Team and driver chart

TeamDriversRounds
Andretti Autosport26 Zach VeachAll
Andretti Autosport83 Matthew BrabhamAll
Belardi Auto Racing0 Chase Austin7
Belardi Auto Racing4 Alexandre Baron1–7, 9
Belardi Auto Racing4 Axcil Jefferies10–11
Belardi Auto Racing4 Ryan Phinny13–14
Belardi Auto Racing5 Gabby ChavesAll
Bryan Herta Autosport
Jeffrey Mark Motorsport		28 Lloyd Read1–6
Bryan Herta Autosport
Jeffrey Mark Motorsport		28 Ryan Phinny9–11
Fan Force United24 Scott AndersonAll
MDL Racing56 Matthew Di Leo9
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports7 Luiz RaziaAll
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports10 Juan Pablo GarcíaAll
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports42 Jack HarveyAll
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports77 Juan PiedrahitaAll
Team Moore Racing2 Zack Meyer1–7, 9–11, 13–14
Team Moore Racing22 Vittorio Ghirelli1–4
Team Moore Racing22 Jimmy Simpson10–11

Schedule

Andersen Promotions announced the 2014 Indy Lights schedule on October 24, 2013. The season consisted of 14 races held over 10 race weekends, consisting of three street circuits, three ovals, and four permanent road courses. All race weekends on permanent road courses were double-race weekends. The series returned to Sonoma Raceway for the first time since 2010. It also raced on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for the first time since 2007 in support of the new Grand Prix of Indianapolis, although the track was in a different configuration than the one raced in 2007. The series did not return to Iowa Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, or Houston despite IndyCar returning to those tracks in 2014 and did not race at the Baltimore Grand Prix as that race was cancelled for 2014.
RndDateRace NameTrackLocation
1March 30 St. Petersburg 100Streets of St. PetersburgSt. Petersburg, Florida
2April 13 Long Beach 100Streets of Long BeachLong Beach, California
3April 26 Legacy Indy Lights 100Barber Motorsports ParkBirmingham, Alabama
4April 27 Legacy Indy Lights 100Barber Motorsports ParkBirmingham, Alabama
5May 9 Liberty ChallengeIndianapolis Motor Speedway road courseSpeedway, Indiana
6May 10 Liberty ChallengeIndianapolis Motor Speedway road courseSpeedway, Indiana
7May 23 Freedom 100Indianapolis Motor Speedway ovalSpeedway, Indiana
8July 6 Pocono Indy Lights 100Pocono RacewayLong Pond, Pennsylvania
9July 20 Grand Prix of TorontoExhibition PlaceToronto, Ontario
10August 2 Grand Prix of Mid-OhioMid-Ohio Sports Car CourseLexington, Ohio
11August 3 Grand Prix of Mid-OhioMid-Ohio Sports Car CourseLexington, Ohio
12August 17 Milwaukee RaceMilwaukee MileWest Allis, Wisconsin
13August 23 Grand Prix of SonomaSonoma RacewaySonoma, California
14August 24 Grand Prix of SonomaSonoma RacewaySonoma, California

Race results

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

;Points system
Position123456789101112
Points504035323028262422201816