In a move that just makes sense, a portion of what was known as the Road to Indy Series has been renamed the USF Pro Championships, presented by Cooper Tires.

We rename and rebrand. 3 Reasons. Control, Money and Tires. #1. Control No one entity controls the entire Road to Indy as of 2022. With Indy Lights and the other 2 series (USF 2000 and Indy Pro 2000) being run by different organizations. The rebranding in my opinion is a protective move by Andersen Promotion #2 ) Money - Again, the promoters of the series have to compete for teams and drivers and have to protect what they have built. which brings us to #3 and the big elephant that was in the room. TIRES. It was the Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires.

Cooper Tires will not be on Indy Lights in 2023 - it will be Firestone. To protect the sponsorship and the dollars invested, it is smart for Andersen to solidify that relationship with Cooper Tires (Goodyear). I would foresee a shake out in the scholarship payouts going forward. As to this being a F1 feeder, it really isn't. The intro of USF Juniors is a direct competition to F4 and FR America which has been backed by Honda. The FR scholarship goes to Super Formula and the USF Pro will go to Indy Lights, even if cut going forward

Frost, Petrov & Rasmussen visit victory lane at Road America

As the Road to Indy Series got back on track for the 1st time in the 2020 season.

For the first time since 2019, the Road to Indy and IndyCar Series was competing on the same weekend at Road America and based upon the IndyCar results the Road to Indy stars that have graduated from the series were truly shining in the IndyCar series with Pato OWard, Felix Rosenqvist having great showings and duking it out in race number two at Road America. Focusing on the action that took place with the Indy Pro 2000 both of the series on the Road to Indy qualified in wet conditions. The series was on the track at Road America on Thursday and Friday so that they could be out of the track in time for the Indy cars to come in for the weekend double-header. In the first race with the Indy Pro 2000, Danial Frost only led one lap, that was the very last lap. He had qualified in the pole position but due to a gearing issue he was bumped back and had a penalty that he had to start at the rear of the grid, and he made his way all the way up by winning the race by .0556 seconds over Devlin DeFrancesco.

Colin Kaminsky in his first run in the Indy Pro 2000 was on the podium for that race. The fast lap of the race was Manuel Sulaiman and he turned in that fast lap. That meant that he was on the pole for race number two. Race number two was won by Artem Petrov from St. Petersburg, Russia. He started third in the race and was able to move himself into the winning position. Sting Ray Robb finished second and Danial Frost followed up his victory in the first race with a podium finish. Two drivers that do not want to even have you mention Road America again Hunter McElrae the rookie in the series moving up from USF2000 and Parker Thompson. Both finished in the back half of the field, the back bottom portion of the field. Good solid showings for last year's USF2000 champion Braden Eves in the first race. Let me check the details here.

The first race he had a fourth just off of the podium and in the second race fifth. So, if we look at the points and here's something that I wish that would be worked out with Road to Indy especially with there not being any Indy Lights this year, no Indy Lights races. I would love to see a graphic popped up during the main NBC broadcast or NBC Sports Network that gave you the top three or top five and points of the series because as you see, those drivers that are on the Road to Indy actually end up making it into the Series. They're folks that the race fans need to know a little bit more about it. But the top standings for Indy Pro 2000 Danial Frost with his victory and podium position. He leads with 52 points, Devlin DeFrancesco with 46 points, Sting Ray Robb in third with 42, Artem Petrov with his win in the second race, a lower standing in the first race but he's fourth at 39.

Colin Kaminski very solid 37 points tied with Braden Eves and that rounds out your top five or top six of it. In the team championship Juncos Racing 52 points. Turn 3 Motorsports, Danial Frost running for Turn 3 Motorsports, absolutely fantastic to see this. One of the hardest working teams putting their cars together and having different drivers in it at spring training when I was down at Homestead. It's great to see the results for this team of not only what Danial Frost is doing but eighth place and points Antoine Comeau being there. So, Juncos, Turn 3, Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport not in the Indy Lights. So, they're fielding a car in Indy Pro and then Exclusive Autosport.

Turning the page to USF2000 Christian Rasmussen. Christian Rasmussen, he took the lead or took the points lead won both...

During the break in the racing action, I caught up with Max Esterson after his iRacing team won the 12 hours of Sebring online. We also talk about his recent announcement with Team Pelfrey to run F1600 in 2020.