By Steve Wittich
With three wins, four podiums and three fastest laps, USF Pro 2000 Presented By Cooper Tires rookie Myles Rowe (Pabst Racing) is off to one of the hottest starts in all of motorsport this season.
The 22-year-old, who recently graduated from Pace University in New York, NY, carries a commanding 42-point lead over his next closest rival for the $664,500 Discount Tire Driver Advancement Scholarship.
However, the series heads to a track known for chaos (see the creative video from Scott Hargrove below) and a hungry group of aggressive competitors will look to trip him up.
The hungry group of drivers from second through sixth – Francesco Pizzi (TJ Speed Motorsports), Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), Jace Denmark (Pabst Racing), Lirim Zendeli (TJ Speed Motorsports) and Joel Granfors (Exclusive Autosport) have at least one podium and are separated by only 11 points.
Last year, eight drivers representing six teams stood on the nine possible podiums across three series races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, proving that anything can happen on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
USF Pro 2000 Presented By Cooper Tires Championship Standings After Four of 18 Races
RANK | DRIVER | TEAM | TOTAL | BACK | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Myles Rowe (rookie) | Pabst Racing w/Force Indy | 116 | ||
2 | Francesco Pizzi (rookie) | TJ Speed Motorsports | 74 | -42 | |
3 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | 74 | -42 | |
4 | Jace Denmark (rookie) | Pabst Racing | 64 | -52 | |
5 | Lirim Zendeli (rookie) | TJ Speed Motorsports | 64 | -52 | |
6 | Joel Granfors (rookie) | Exclusive Autosport | 63 | -53 | |
7 | Reece Ushijima (rookie) | Jay Howard Driver Development | 49 | -67 | |
8 | Christian Brooks (rookie) | Turn 3 Motorsport | 47 | -69 | |
9 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | 44 | -72 | |
10 | Jonathan Browne | Turn 3 Motorsport | 42 | -74 | |
11 | Jackson Lee (rookie) | Turn 3 Motorsport | 41 | -75 | |
12 | Salvador de Alba | Exclusive Autosport | 37 | -79 | |
13 | Jordan Missig | Pabst Racing | 34 | -82 | |
14 | Christian Weir (rookie) | TJ Speed Motorsports | 34 | -82 | |
15 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Exclusive Autosport | 33 | -83 | |
16 | Bijoy Garg | DEForce Racing | 32 | -84 | |
17 | Michael d’Orlando (rookie) | Turn 3 Motorsport | 29 | -87 | |
18 | Ricardo Escotto (rookie) | Jay Howard Driver Development | 23 | -93 | |
19 | Lindsay Brewer | Exclusive Autosport | 22 | -94 | |
20 | Nicholas Monteiro (rookie) | NeoTech Motorsport | 20 | -96 |
Home race
Jackson Lee was born in Indianapolis and lives in Avon, Ind. The 20-year-old is coming off his best USF Pro Championships finish, crossing the line in fifth place at Sebring International Raceway.
The Indiana University/Purdue University (IUPUI) student’s No 47 from the Turn 3 Motorsport stable features many local sponsors, including the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Browning Chapman and Prime 47 Indy.
Second-generation racer Jack William Miller was born in Westfield, Ind, and calls Carmel, Ind., home.
The 19-year-old will be making his 40th USF Pro 2000 start in Friday’s first race. The driver of the Patterson Dental/Blue Marble Productions sponsored No.40 has two poles, four podiums, 11 top fives, and three quickest laps of the race in 71 USF Pro Championship starts.
“We are very excited that it’s May and finally be back on track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” said Miller. “We are looking forward to being back in the car and using the knowledge we gained over the break during our events this weekend.”
Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course notes and numbers
- Exclusive Autosport (three) and Jay Howard Driver Development (three) are the only active teams with wins on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
- Salvador de Alba (Exclusive Autosport) has a USF Pro 2000 race win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
- Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Exclusive Autosport) has two USF2000 wins, and Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing) has one USF2000 win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
- The pole sitter has won 50% of the USF Pro 2000 races here, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. More recently, in the six races over the past two seasons, no pole winners have won, and the average starting position of the race winner is 5.5.
- Michel Jourdain, Jr. protege Salvador de Alba won the first USF Pro 2000 race on a damp track from the 12th starting spot last year, the deepest in the field a driver has won from.
Previous USF Pro 2000 Presented By Cooper Tires winners on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course
Year | Driver | Team |
---|---|---|
2022 Race #3 | Louis Foster | Exclusive Autosport |
2022 Race #2 | Reece Gold | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
2022 Race #1 | Salvador de Alba | Jay Howard Driver Development |
2021 Race #3 | Christian Rasmussen | Jay Howard Driver Development |
2021 Race #2 | Artem Petrov | Exclusive Autosport |
2021 Race #1 | Christian Rasmussen | Jay Howard Driver Development |
2020 Race #3 | Sting Ray Robb | Juncos Racing |
2020 Race #2 | Sting Ray Robb | Juncos Racing |
2020 Race #1 | Sting Ray Robb | Juncos Racing |
2019 Race #2 | Rasmus Lindh | Juncos Racing |
2019 Race #1 | Rasmus Lindh | Juncos Racing |
2018 Race #2 | Parker Thompson | Exclusive Autosport |
2018 Race #1 | Harrison Scott | RP Motorsport |
2017 Race #2 | Victor Franzoni | Juncos Racing |
2017 Race #1 | Victor Franzoni | Juncos Racing |
2016 Race #2 | Pato O’Ward | Team Pelfrey |
2016 Race #1 | Pato O’Ward | Team Pelfrey |
2015 Race #3 | Santiago Urrutia | Team Pelfrey |
2015 Race #2 | Timothe Buret | Juncos Racing |
2015 Race #1 | Weiron Tan | Andretti Autosport |
2014 – Race #2 | Scott Hargrove | Cape Motorsports with /WTR |
2014 – Race #1 | Scott Hargrove | Cape Motorsports with /WTR |
- Active teams Miller Vinatieri Motorsports (two) and Turn 3 Motorsport (one) have poles on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
- Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports) has two USF Pro 2000 poles, and Jonathan Browne (Turn 3 Motorsport) has one pole on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
- Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Exclusive Autosport) and Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing) have two USF2000 poles on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
- Exclusive Autosport leads all active teams with eight podiums on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
- Nine races have gone green to checker without a caution. The average number of caution laps across all of the races is 2.5. Ten of the 22 races have had a first-lap caution.
- Ten races have seen the lead change hands, with the first race in 2018 having three lead changes, the most in the series on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
- The first race in 2020 is the only one to finish under the caution.
- The most significant margin of victory came in 2017 when Victor Franzoni beat T.J. Fischer to the line by 13.0798 seconds.
- In 2021 current INDY NXT championship leader Christian Rasmussen beat Braden Eves to the twin-checkered flags by a slim seven-hundredths of a second.
- Rasmus Lindh holds the track record at 78.9953 seconds, set during qualifying in 2019.