2006 Indy Pro Series

The 2006 Indy Racing League Indy Pro Series was the fifth season of the developmental open-wheel racing series. It was the first season to include double-header races on road and street courses. The season began at the Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 26 and finished September 9 at Chicagoland Speedway.

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. Defending series champion Wade Cunningham, driving for Brian Stewart Racing, finished third in points despite missing two races due to illness and scored more points per race than Howard or Klein. Rookie Alex Lloyd won two races, but missed three due to funding issues and finished seventh in points. Brazilian rookie Raphael Matos swept the race weekend at St. Petersburg, his first two series starts. Graham Rahal made his only Indy Pro Series start at the Liberty Challenge and won the pole and nearly won the race.

41 different drivers competed in a race but only six started all twelve races.

Drivers and teams

All teams competed in Firestone-shod Dallaras.

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
Matt Young Motorsports	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
		Racer 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
	52	Nick Bussell	All
Part Sourcing International	76	James Chesson	4, 7
		Mike Potekhen	6, 9–12

Race Summaries

Driver standings

Pos Driver HMS STP INDY WGL IMS NAS MIL KTY SNM CHI Pts 1 Jay Howard 3 3 2 2 6 18 1 7 1 10 5 3 390 2 Jonathan Klein 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 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 10 3 5 17 1 DNS 16 2 1 4 294 8 Chris Festa 16 6 8 4 14 15 9 8 5 205 9 Brett Van Blankers 8 9 11 14 7 17 10 8 15 179 10 Raphael Matos 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 11 10 6 6 7 121 14 Tom Wood 9 4 9 12 9 116 15 Arie Luyendyk Jr. 4 DNS 11 11 6 105 16 Matthew Hamilton 14 7 7 13 10 105 17 Geoff Dodge 7 11 13 8 12 104 18 Sean Guthrie 11 16 8 5 18 99 19 C. R. Crews 9 6 11 13 86 20 Scott Mansell 14 14 11 7 77 21 Phil Giebler 16 3 7 75 22 Racer Kashima 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 8 8 48 26 Mishael Abbott 13 17 12 48 28 Graham Rahal 2 43 29 Micky Gilbert 9 10 42 29 Ben Petter 9 10 42 31 Daniel Gaunt 14 9 38 32 Tom Wieringa 12 15 33 33 Rocco DeSimone 15 14 31 34 Thiago Medeiros 6 28 35 Michael Crawford 10 20 35 Logan Gomez 10 20 37 Veronica McCann 11 19 37 James Chesson 18 DNS 19 39 Éric Paradis 12 18 40 Akihira Okamoto 14 16 41 Tyce Carlson 15 15 Pos Driver HMS STP INDY WGL IMS NAS MIL KTY SNM CHI Pts

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) 1 Qualifying cancelled no bonus point awarded Rookie of the Year Rookie

• Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.