Firestone Indy Lights is a developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by the Indy Racing League. Previously, another series named Indy Lights filled the same role for CART and ran from 1986 to 1990 as the American Racing Series and Dayton Indy Lights from 1991 to 2001. The IRL- sanctioned current series was founded in 2002 as the Infiniti Pro Series as a way to introduce new talent to the IRL and coincided with Infiniti's departure from the IRL's premier IndyCar Series.