Grand Prix of Indianapolis (Indy Lights)

Indy Lights Grand Prix

Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tire
Venue	Indianapolis Motor Speedway
First race	2005
Previous names	Liberty Challenge (2005–2007) Mazda Grand Prix of Indianapolis (2015) Grand Prix of Indianapolis Indy Lights (2014, 2016–2018)

The Indy Lights Grand Prix of Indianapolis is a pair of twin races in the Cooper Tire Indy Lights Series, held on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is held as a support race to the Brickyard 400 of the NASCAR Cup Series.

The race was previously known as the Liberty Challenge from 2005 to 2007. It originally was held as a support race to the United States Grand Prix, and from 2014 to 2019, it was part of the IndyCar Series. For 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the race be on its own weekend September 3–4, as neither road course weekend was suitable.

Race history[]

For the first three years of its existence, the Indy Pro Series was contested on oval tracks only. This was also true of the parent IndyCar Series, at the time. All Indy Pro Series races were run as support to IndyCar Series events. Road course and street course events were added to both series in 2005, and the series became known as Indy Lights in 2008.

In 2005, the series added the Liberty Challenge, as a support race to the Formula One United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. This move allowed the Indy Pro Series drivers valuable exposure in front of the Formula One teams and fans. Some drivers, such as Graham Rahal, ran this race as a one-off, while running other series (such as the Champ Car Atlantics).

The Liberty Challenge was the only Indy Pro Series race at the time which was not run as support to an IndyCar Series weekend. Also, the Indy Pro Series became the only racing series to hold races on both the oval and road course tracks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Freedom 100 has been held on the oval since 2003. In 2007, a twin race format was introduced. After 2007, the U.S Grand Prix left Indianapolis, and the Liberty Challenge race was put on hiatus.

In 2014, the race was revived as part of the new IndyCar Grand Prix weekend, where all four IndyCar-sanctioned divisions participate in races on the road course during the first weekend of the Indianapolis 500 race meeting. In addition, the Indy Lights began utilizing the newer road course layout used by the IndyCar Series.

Race results[]

Year	Date	Day	Winning Driver	Race Distance		Time of Race	Winning Speed
				Miles	Laps
2005	June 18	Saturday	Marco Andretti	65.1	25	35:57.3780	108.465 mph
2006	July 1	Saturday	Alex Lloyd	59.9	23	35:53.516	100.159 mph
2007	June 16	Saturday	Hideki Mutoh	46.9	18	26:09.8910	107.320 mph
	June 17	Sunday	Bobby Wilson	46.9	18	28:40.9170	97.901 mph
2014	May 9	Friday	Matthew Brabham	63.4	26	40:12.7538	94.618 mph
	May 10	Saturday	Luiz Razia	97.56	40	56:23.3259	103.808 mph
2015	May 8	Friday	Jack Harvey	73.2	30	39:13.4976	111.924 mph
	May 9	Saturday	Sean Rayhall	85.4	35	48:08.2758	106.401 mph
2016	May 13	Friday	Ed Jones	73.17	30	41:15.4848	106.408 mph
	May 14	Saturday	Dean Stoneman	85.365	35	46:45.5881	109.536 mph
2017	May 12	Friday	Nico Jamin	73.17	30	38:29.3542	114.063 mph
	May 13	Saturday	Kyle Kaiser	85.365	35	45:11.5257	113.336 mph
2018	May 11	Friday	Colton Herta	73.17	30	39:07.7629	112.197 mph
	May 12	Saturday	Colton Herta	85.365	35	45:28.9254	112.614 mph
2019	May 10	Friday	Robert Megennis	73.17	30	38:16	114.739 mph[1]
	May 11	Saturday	Rinus VeeKay	108.119	45	44:38	114.761 mph[2]

Qualification Results[]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (May 2020)

Year	Date	Day	Pole Sitter / Fast Qualifier	Pole 1-Lap Qualifying Time	Pole Speed	Number of Qualifiers	Slow Qualifier Speed	Mean Qualifying Speed
2005	June 17	Friday	Marco Andretti	01:26.2360	108.539 mph	14	98.033 mph	105.234 mph
2006	June 30	Friday	Graham Rahal	01:25.5810	109.580 mph	18	105.203 mph	107.959 mph
2007	June 15	Friday	Hideki Mutoh	01:25.2810	109.966 mph	25	102.883 mph	107.541 mph
2014	May 9	Friday	Matthew Brabham	01:18.4256	111.958 mph	11	108.655 mph	110.811 mph

Event Records[]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (May 2020)

	Year	Driver
Fastest Race	2005	Marco Andretti	Time: 35:57.3780	Speed: 108.465 mph	65.1 Miles	25 Laps
Fastest Qualification Run	2007	Hideki Mutoh	Time: 01:25.2810	Speed: 109.966 mph	2.605 Miles	1 Lap
Fastest Race Lap	2005	Marco Andretti	Time 01:25.9110	Speed: 108.950 mph	2.605 Miles	1 Lap
Most Starts by a Driver	2005–2007	Jaime Camara; Wade Cunningham; Chris Festa			4 Starts each
Most Participants	2007	25 Starting Drivers

Previous course layouts[]

• 

  Course layout from 2005 to 2007

References[]

Sources[]

• Indy Lights stats
• Champ Car Stats – Indy Pro Series