The 2014 Indy Lights season was a season of

open wheel An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of tw ...

. It was the 29th season of the

Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a progra ...

series and the 13th sanctioned by IndyCar, acting as the primary support series for the

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...

. It began March 30, 2014 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

.Mazda Road to Indy 2014 Schedule Confirmed
''Andsersen Promotions PR'', October 24, 2013, Retrieved 2013-11-05 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 Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is an American company that specializes in the design, manufacture, marketing, and sales of replacement automobile and truck tires, and has subsidiaries that specialize in medium truck, motorcycle, and racing tires. W ...

as the sole tire supplier, replacing Firestone who had supplied tires to the series for its entire previous existence. Colombian-American

Gabby Chaves Gabriel "Gabby" Chaves (born 7 July 1993) is a Colombian-American racing driver, currently competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Pilot Challenge. He raced in the IndyCar Series and is the 2014 Indy Lights Champion. ...

, driving for Belardi Auto Racing captured the championship on the second tie-breaker over

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports The IndyCar Series operation of McLaren Racing competes under the banner of Arrow McLaren SP. This entry is based in Indianapolis and was founded by former driver Sam Schmidt as Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Fellow ex-driver Davey Hamilton joined a ...

rookie Jack Harvey. Early on, the season appeared to be a two-horse race between Chaves and

Andretti Autosport Andretti Autosport is an auto racing team that competes in the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Indy Pro 2000, and Formula E. The team also has a 37.5% ownership stake in the Australian Supercars Championship touring car team, Walkinshaw Andretti ...

Zach Veach Zachary E. Veach (born December 9, 1994) is an American auto racing driver who competes full time in the IMSA SportsCar Championship GT3 class for Vasser Sullivan. Veach was named to CNN's list of "Intriguing People" in May 2010, is the national ...

. 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 Matthew Chase Brabham (born 25 February 1994) is an Australian-American racing driver. He competes full-time in Indy Lights, driving the No. 83 for Andretti Autosport. From 2015 to 2021, he was a regular in the Stadium Super Trucks, where he is ...

and

Luiz Razia Luiz Tadeu Razia Filho (born 4 April 1989) is a Brazilian businessman and former racing driver. Career Early career Razia began his single seater career in 2005 in the South American Formula 3 championship. Driving for Dragão Motorsport, R ...

who each captured their first and only wins of the season on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Belardi's

Alexandre Baron Alexandre Baron (born 6 December 1994) is a French racing driver from Narbonne. After karting, Baron raced in the French F4 Championship in 2012 and won the championship with nine wins in 13 races. In 2013 he began the season in Formula Renault ...

– a race-winner in Toronto – who was in the championship hunt until reported visa issues forced him to leave the series.Belardi's Chaves Scores Two Podiums at Mid-Ohio
''Indy Lights'', August 6, 2014, Retrieved 2014-08-25

Team and driver chart

* All drivers competed in

–shod

Dallara Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created ...

chassis.

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 Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway from 1967 to 1980 and 1982 to 2002, Golden State International Raceway in 1981 and Infineon Raceway from 2002 to 2012) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southe ...

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 The IndyCar Series hosts two races a year on the combined road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The first, the GMR Grand Prix is held in early May with an inaugural running in 2014. The second race, the Gallagher G ...

, although the track was in a different configuration than the one raced in 2007. The series did not return to

Iowa Speedway Iowa Speedway is a 7/8-mile (1.4 km) paved oval motor racing track in Newton, Iowa, United States, approximately east of Des Moines. It has over 25,000 permanent seats as well as a unique multi-tiered RV viewing area along the backstretc ...

, Auto Club Speedway, or

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

despite IndyCar returning to those tracks in 2014 and did not race at the

Baltimore Grand Prix The Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT was an IndyCar Series and American Le Mans Series race for 3 years held on a street circuit in Baltimore, Maryland. The inaugural race was held September 4, 2011. ESPN said it was the best inaugural ...

as that race was cancelled for 2014.

Race results

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

;Points system * Drivers had to complete 50% of the race distance in order to score full points, otherwise 1 point was awarded. * Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

Teams' championship

References

External links

* {{Road to Indy Indy Lights seasons