The 2012

Indy Lights Indy NXT (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Roa ...

season was the 27th season of the series and the eleventh sanctioned by

IndyCar IndyCar, LLC (stylized as INDYCAR), is an auto racing sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The organization sanctions two racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with the Indianapolis ...

, acting as the primary support series for the IZOD IndyCar Series. It began March 24, 2012 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. The championship was dominated by the

Sam Schmidt Motorsports The IndyCar Series operation of McLaren, competing as Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team due to sponsorship, is based in Indianapolis and was founded by former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt in 2001 as Sam Schmidt Motorsports (SSM). The team operates the N ...

team with French driver

Tristan Vautier Tristan Philippe Alain Vautier (born 22 August 1989) is a French professional racing driver who is currently competing in the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship for Proton Competition and in the 2025 European Le Mans Series for CLX Motorsport, CLX ...

winning the championship by eight points ahead of experienced Argentine team mate

Esteban Guerrieri Esteban Guerrieri (born 19 January 1985) is an Argentina, Argentine racing driver currently competing in the FIA TCR World Tour for the GOAT Racing JAS Motorsport, Honda team. His early career in single-seaters saw him become Formula Renault Euro ...

. SSM drivers won seven out of the twelve races over the course of the season and Vautier also claimed the rookie of the year title. Colombian driver

Gustavo Yacamán Gustavo "''El Tigrillo''" (English: The Ocelot) Yacamán Aristizabal (born February 25, 1991) is a Colombian racing driver from Santiago de Cali who currently manages the USF Juniors series. Yacamán began his career in open-wheel racing, but swit ...

from Team Moore Racing finished a tight battle for third with countryman

Sebastián Saavedra Sebastián Saavedra (born 2 June 1990) is a Colombian racing driver from Bogotá. In 2014, he drove for KVSH Racing in the Verizon IndyCar Series before being replaced by former GP2 Series driver Stefano Coletti. Racing career Early career Afte ...

Team and driver chart

* All drivers will compete in Firestone Firehawk–shod

Dallara Dallara Group S.r.l. is the largest multi-national Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Giampaolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' M ...

chassis.

Schedule

IndyCar announced that all Firestone Indy Lights Series races would be broadcast on the

NBC Sports Network NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), w ...

in 2012.

Race results

Driver standings

* Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

Footnotes

References

{{Road to Indy Indy Lights seasons