Indy Champ Car Pro Series

Manufacturers
 Teams' champion
 Makes' champion

The **INDY Champ Car Pro Series presented by Advance Auto Parts** is a developmental open-wheel racing series owned and operated by INDYCAR, LLC. Alongside Indy Lights, the series represents the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program of racing series leading up to the IndyCar Series as well as the Champ Car World Series. The series was originally formed in 2012 as the ASCRA Carquest Open Wheel Jr. Series, the developmental series for the ASCRA Lucas Oil Formula Series. The series was owned by the American Stock Car Racing Association from its inception until 2021.

Prior to the 2022 season, the series was sold to INDYCAR, LLC as a result of the strain the COVID-19 pandemic put on the ASCRA. INDYCAR, LLC announced the series would operate under the name "INDY Champ Car Pro Series" with title sponsorship originally being announced as Carquest before parent company Advance Auto Parts revealed their support of the series. The name "Indy Champ Car" was chosen to represent the series' position as a development stop for both IndyCar and Champ Car.

## History

Formed in 2012 as the **ASCRA Carquest Open Wheel Jr. Series**, it took on its current moniker for the 2015 season. Since its inception, the Junior Series has fielded developmental entries for every single AFS team with races being held the day before AFS events.

## Rules and regulations

### Points

The Formula Junior Series tries to incentify winning races and finishing on the podium by providing a higher point value as well as bonus points. Bonus points are awarded to the top five finishers with first place receiving 10, second and third place receive 5, and fourth and fifth receive 1 bonus point each. Bonus points are immediately added to a driver's overall points total, although bonus points earned are also used as a tie-breaker in the standings.

### Cars

The Formula Junior Series is not an open formula motor sport archetpye. A spec series, the league mandates chassis and engine manufacturers which teams must use each season. Currently, Dallara provides a specification chassis to all teams, with Chevrolet, Honda and Mazda providing teams engines.

#### First gen car (2012-2020)

The **First-Gen** cars debuted alongside the series in 2012 and were designed to be cheaper versions of the Second-Gen Formula Series cars being used in the parent division. The cars featured a chassis provided by Dallara (Dallara OWJ-12) and teams could run their choice of Chevrolet or Honda engines. A second version of the Dallara chassis was built for the 2017 season dubbed the Dallara FJS-17 which all teams adopted by the 2019 season. It featured a number of safety improvements and directly led to the development of the Second-Gen cars.

#### Second gen car (2021-*future*)

The **Second-Gen** cars
were originally scheduled to debut in the 2020 season, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been delayed to 2021. originally scheduled debuted in the 2012 season, the eleventh for the series. The cars will feature a chassis provided by Dallara (Dallara FJS-21) and teams will be able to pick from Chevrolet, Honda or Mazda engines. 2021 will mark the first season of competition for Mazda.

### Tires

The Formula Junior Series has fielded Firestone exclusively since their debut in 2012. They provide the teams with five different tire compounds to use throughout the year although the league mandates which three may be used any given event. These compounds include three dry or slick tires (Soft, Medium, Hard) and two wet tires (Intermediate, Wet). In order to quickly differentiate one compound from the other, the league has mandated a color to match each compound. Soft are red, Medium are yellow, Hard are white, Intermediates are green and Wet are blue. These colors largely match those used in F1.