INDY LIGHTS: Schmidt Peterson shutters program

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, the most successful team in Indy Lights history, has exited the series. The decision comes almost four months ahead of the season opener in St. Petersburg and has been made, according to Schmidt, in order to bolster the team's two-car Verizon IndyCar Series program.

"The primary reason is I really want to focus on taking our IndyCar squad from being a good team with occasional flashes of brilliance to becoming a frequent front-runner," Schmidt told RACER. The driver-turned-owner also cited an increase in personal responsibilities as a secondary reason for shuttering the Lights team.

"There's something to be said about the way the Rahals are doing things with one car and all the emphasis placed on its success," he continued. "In our situation, personally, I've finally got the IndyCar program in place with driver and personnel continuity, and now have a rapidly expanding commercial department, I'm slated to drive the SAM Corvette 10 or 12 times next year, I also have my foundation, and unfortunately, if the Indy Lights team was going to succeed, it was going to be me who needed to do it. I'm just out of bandwidth to do everything at the level it deserves without reducing my commitments."

SPM almost won the 2016 Indy Lights title with Uruguayan phenom Santiago Urrutia, and has produced seven title winners, including Josef Newgarden and Sage Karam, since joining the series in the early 2000s. The loss for the Indy Lights series, and young drivers in search of a home with a perennial championship contender, is hard to adequately express.

"This decision was not taken lightly; Lights is where we made our name, earned the most wins and poles and championships, and I've been having a lot of mental battles the last 30 days about this," Schmidt said. "I've been spending 50 percent of my time trying to get the Indy Lights team to work; it's not an easy business model. I've never been one to back down from a challenge, so now I'm putting a lot of pressure on our key IndyCar team members to raise the bar so we can compete for a championship. That requires more of my time as well."

After rededicating some Lights employees to SPM's IndyCar program and helping others to find new jobs, Schmidt will look to sell or lease his Lights cars. An outing at the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis in May could also be possible.

"The most important thing is we'll be able to carry about a third of the staff over to our IndyCar team," he said. "And we've been talking actively with other Lights teams – some that we know are expanding – about hiring the rest of the staff so there's no disruption in income. And maybe, if we have a car left in the shop, I wouldn't rule out another go at the Freedom 100."

Minus the Lights effort, SPM heads into the 2017 IndyCar season with James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin as its sole priority.