At one time, Sam Schmidt’s Indy Lights teams were so successful, the team owner was known as "the Roger Penske of Indy Lights.”

Schmidt, who began in this sport as an Indy Racing League driver, formed an IRL team as an owner following his accident in 2000 at Walt Disney World Speedway but quickly realized he didn’t have the resources to compete at the highest level.

So, Schmidt turned to owning a team in Indy Lights and turned that into the standard of the day.

Schmidt’s drivers won the Indy Lights championship in 2004 (with driver Thiago Medeiros), 2006 (Jay Howard), 2007 (Alex Lloyd), 2010 (JK Vernay), 2011 (Josef Newgarden), 2012 (Tristan Vautier) and 2013 (Sage Karam).

After Schmidt acquired the FAZZT Race Team in 2011, Sam Schmidt Motorsports was back in the NTT IndyCar Series. When that team later expanded into a multi-car operation, Schmidt ended his involvement in the Indy Lights Series to focus on the IndyCar team.

On Wednesday, Arrow McLaren Racing SP named the last two Indy Lights champions as its drivers for the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series. Schmidt is an ownership partner in that team along with Arrow, McLaren and his longtime business partner Ric Peterson.

Patricio O’Ward, the 20-year-old driver from Mexico, won the 2018 Indy Lights championship when he was 18. Oliver Askew, 22, from Jupiter, Fla., won this year's Indy Lights title. Today, they are NTT IndyCar Series drivers.

Schmidt believes it is the latest example of the talent that is being generated from the Indy Lights Series and the Road to Indy ladder system.

“I've been a fan of watching the youth come from karts to through the Mazda Road to Indy and a very big supporter of that,” Schmidt said. “I think if it just wasn't for our overwhelming partner associations and everything to do with that and driving the SAM Corvette on behalf of Arrow, all those commitments is what, unfortunately, has got us out of the Mazda Road to Indy as a team. But I'm still a big supporter of it, big fan of it and that's what sort of groomed our team for 12 years.

“I’m very proud of the fact that I think at last year's Indy 500 of the 33 starters we had about 13 or 14 drivers that had come through our Indy Lights program in the past. So just very proud of that as a team owner and what that says as far as the capabilities of that Mazda Road to Indy.”

With Colton Herta’s spectacular rookie season in 2019 in which he won two races and three poles for Harding Steinbrenner Racing, combined with O’Ward and Askew joining the series as rookies in 2020, there is a youth movement underway in the NTT IndyCar Series.

“It is truly amazing what has happened to be able to allow these two past champions to be a part of it,” Schmidt said. “If you look at the recent five or six year history, most of those guys are still competing in IndyCar and it's a bit of a changing of the guard, you know, so it's great to be a part that have as a team owner and to be able to participate in the opportunity.”

It proves the current Road to Indy ladder system is working as it was intended; that talent graduates to the next level and ultimately to the NTT IndyCar Series.

“Absolutely,” Schmidt said. “I think the fantastic thing is we're keeping them, right? Because 10, 15, 18 years ago we had midget, sprint cars, F2000, Atlantic, all those combinations and ultimately when they got to us, got to that top level of open wheel, they let them go into either IMSA or NASCAR for whatever reason.

“I really like the fact that the last four, five, six years we have been able to keep these guys and keep them in IndyCar racing and further their careers, which was the ultimate goal in the first place.

“I’m just really proud to be a part of that.”