2001 Indy Lights season

The 2001 CART PPG/Dayton Indy Lights Championship Powered By Buick consisted of 12 races. It was dominated by Townsend Bell who captured six victories on his way to the championship. It was the last Indy Lights season, as the series organizer, CART, decided to drop the Indy Lights series and concentrate its efforts on the Toyota Atlantic Championship. Most former Indy Lights teams that wished to stay in business went either to the Atlantic series, which replaced Indy Lights as the support race at most CART events, or the new Infiniti Pro Series, which ran in support of Indy Racing League events.
All teams used the Lola T97/20-Buick spec car. Each round of the championship seldom had more than 12 entries.
The scoring system was 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points awarded to the first 12 finishers, with 1 extra point given to the driver who took pole-position, and another extra point given to the driver who led most laps in the race.

Team and driver chart

All teams utilized Lola T97/20 chassis with Buick V6 engines.

Team

Drivers

Round

Brian Stewart Racing

Race summaries

Monterrey

March 11, 2001
Fundidora Park, Monterrey, Mexico
Pole position: Derek Higgins, 1:25.345,

Long Beach

April 8, 2001
Long Beach street circuit, Long Beach, California
Pole position: Mario Domínguez, 1:15.968,

Texas

April 28, 2001
Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas
Pole position: Damien Faulkner, 0:29:060,
The CART race that weekend was cancelled due to track incompatibility, so this was the only race completed that weekend.

Milwaukee

Portland

June 24, 2001
Portland International Raceway, Portland, Oregon
Pole position: Townsend Bell, 1:04.991,

Kansas

July 8, 2001
Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kansas
Pole position: Mario Domínguez, 0:30.252,

‡Townsend Bell was penalized two positions for aggressive driving.

Road Atlanta

October 5, 2001
Road Atlanta, Braselton, Georgia
Pole position: Townsend Bell, 1:14.883,

Laguna Seca

October 14, 2001
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, California
Pole position: Townsend Bell, 1:16.313,

Fontana

November 4, 2001
California Speedway, Fontana, California
Pole position: Townsend Bell
This was the last CART-sanctioned Indy Lights race.

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

; Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
Points	20	16	14	12	10	8	6	5	4	3	2	1

The driver who qualifies on pole is awarded one additional point.
An additional point is awarded to the driver who leads the most laps in a race.