Having run through that process, George Jr. confirms the LNG concept has been abandoned.

“Right now, that’s not something we’re looking at doing. The reasons for that is it’s a technical challenge, a financial challenge and really, if we’d started these conversations a year earlier than we did, we probably would have had a shot at getting it done. There was a lot of excitement and interest in getting it done as our country looks toward energy independence.”

Finally, with rumors of a Formula One feeder series—something along the lines of GP2 or GP3—being established in America, George Jr. spoke on whether he and his colleagues have an interest in making the next Lights car something that would be more appealing to international drivers, rather than something tailored specifically for a career in IndyCar.

“There’s a lot of different philosophies on that, but from the perspective, generally, we want to make Indy Lights cars to make the Indy Lights Series a destination series throughout the world,” he said. “We have great partners with the Mazda Road To Indy to cultivate American talent, but it is important to make our business successful. And to fill out our grids, it’s going to take youngsters from South America and elsewhere.

“We definitely need the car to be attractive. As far as a driver being able to learn with Indy Lights and take those skills to Europe, it will probably be no better or worse than it has been historically. The type of racing they do in Europe is different, so from a driver development perspective, even if we use the same car like World Series [by Renault], the tracks are so different, the car is almost irrelevant. The setups are different, and there are some similarities, but it’s a different kind of racing we do over here.”

Just as some have an interest in attracting American talent (and dollars) to an F1 training series, George Jr. wants to open the door even wider for international talent looking for a career outside of F1.

“We want Indy Lights to be a destination for great drivers that have come to the realization that making it into Formula One is going to be difficult, and a career in the United States is not only good for them and their families, but also that competing for IndyCar championships and an Indy 500 win someday is rewarding. Getting people to Indy and to our series because they’ve been developed in our series is really the focus of the car and the model moving forward.”

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Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.