Beyond the Flag
Fansided

1-on-1 with IndyCar Driver James Hinchcliffe

By Joseph Shelton

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James Hinchcliffe is a four-time winner in the IndyCar Series. Driving for Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, Hinchcliffe’s successes include a victory in the inaugural Grand Prix of Louisiana held in early 2015. The “Mayor of Hinchtown” on social media, Hinchcliffe’s 2015 was cut short when he sustained serious injuries during a crash in practice for the Indianapolis 500.

Hinchcliffe sat down with Beyond The Flag to discuss racing, the 2015 season in retrospect, and Hinchtown Hammer Down Golden Ale.

Beyond The Flag: First and foremost, how are your legs holding up?

James Hinchcliffe: So far so good. Everything back in the gym has been going smoothly. So I’m just happy to still be able to use them.

BTF: Could you describe how strenuous your rehabilitation was?

JH: The biggest part of rehab at first, the hardest part was just sitting still for a couple of months and not pushing, and not working hard, because I really just needed to rest and let everything heal. Once it had healed, you know, I was pretty much off my feet for almost three months. You lose a lot of muscle mass, you lose a lot of your fitness, cardio, but then also you lose a lot of your flexibility. Some of the injury was to the soft tissue in my legs and lower body.

So some of the rehab and some of the stretching to my lower legs was definitely the most painful parts of it. However it was something that we could see progress in every day. Being back in the gym was so nice, being able to actually work again after as long as I had been out. Ultimately, you put in the work and you fight through the pain, and you’re able to get back in the car.

BTF: After all those months from being away from the cockpit you recently took some laps at Road America. Was there any rust you needed to shake off, or did it feel natural to be back in the cockpit again?

JH: You know what? It was like riding a bike. I probably took two laps to kind of get the feel of driving the car back again, and after that it came really naturally. It was just so nice to be back, pushing an IndyCar to it’s limit.

BTF: While you were recovering from your injuries, Conor Daly and Ryan Briscoe took turns filling in for you in the No. 5. How would you describe their performances while subbing for you?

JH: They were both phenomenal, honestly. I don’t know if we could have picked two better guys. Obviously, with Ryan it was a pretty last minute situation for the 500. He drove the car up from the 30s’ up into 13th-place and finished there, which was a pretty commendable performance.

Conor had to go to two street courses, two notoriously difficult street courses that he’d never seen before, in both cases had rain to deal with, and on days when a lot of veterans made some pretty big mistakes he kept his head about him as a rookie, and obviously qualifying was a bit of a struggle just because he was new to the series, hadn’t been testing on the reds or anything like that, but his race performances were exceptional.

Then when Ryan got back in at places like Texas we had a great result and qualifying on the front row at Milwaukee, running up front at Fontana before being taken out, so both guys did a great job. The team was very lucky to have a couple of quality drivers in that car.

BTF: If Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports were to field a third entry, could you see one of those guys filling in that seat?

JH: Oh absolutely. I know that both of them are very much on the radar for 2016 largely because of their performances that they put in for us in 2015.

BTF: Speaking of, what has been the biggest difference between driving for SPM and driving for Andretti Autosport?

JH: Man, that’s uh, that’s a tough one. They’re both obviously top-class teams that put together really good race cars. You know, certainly going from kind of a bigger team (in terms of car numbers) to the smaller team is probably the biggest difference. I had three teammates last year versus one this year. Getting used to that dynamic again, Andretti was always multiple cars, so getting used to only having one other driver to talk to and one other engineering staff to compare against was probably one of the biggest challenges and biggest changes.

BTF: In only the second race of the 2015 season you went to victory lane at the Grand Prix of Louisiana. How was that victory different from those you earned with Andretti?

JH: You know, that one was very different because it was a strategy call. My wins at Andretti were all largely good cars and good pace and all the rest of it. But the [SPM] team took a gamble to put the car out front, and then ultimately we still had to get the job done. We still had to stay out of trouble. It was very tricky conditions with the weather the way it was. It was a challenge for sure, but it was really a strategy call from the team that put us out front and I’ve lost a bunch of race because of things like that so it was nice to be on the receiving end of one.

BTF: Aside from Scott Dixon winning the season title, which driver did you feel was the best/most improved in 2015?

JH: Other than Scott? I think you gotta give it to Graham [Rahal]. To easily put in his best performance of his career, to win two races, one of them his home race, to really carry the Honda flag through the second half of the season, he and Ryan Hunter-Reay both did with Ryan getting a couple of wins at the end there. I think Graham’s consistent performance across the year was huge, super impressive for anybody, and definitely with the couple of years he had recently.

BTF: A lot of people weren’t happy that Dixon won the title, stating that he only won it on the merit of a double points race. What is your take on double points races?

JH: I don’t like them, but I don’t think they had anything to do with Dixon winning the championship. Everybody knew the score going in, and you gotta remember that the only other double points race in the season, [Juan Pablo] Montoya won. So I find people who say that kind of ridiculous because if you eliminate the double points and score both of those races as single points, Scott still wins the title.

So, it doesn’t really affect things. I just think that it’s a little bit of a gimmick, and in my opinion I wouldn’t do them.

More from IndyCar

BTF: Do you feel like the IndyCar Series has to work hard at maintaining it’s own identity as a sanctioning body?

JH: I don’t think you have to work hard at it, I mean, you have to work hard at being a sanctioning body. But, I think ultimately that the decisions that you make and the calls that you make are what’s going to form the public image of you, and obviously they’re going to be fighting to do the best job that they can for the drivers and the teams on track.

The image part of it is going to be a result of that. If you’re doing a good job of calling the races your image takes care of itself.

BTF: Outside of your win at NOLA, what was one of the best moments in the 2015 IndyCar season?

JH: You know, I had a great race with Graham at Barber. It was during the second or third stint. He was in front of me on slower tires, he was on black tires and I was on the reds, and trying to get by him for half a stint was just good, old-fashioned racing. It was a good, clean race and it was definitely one of the highlights other than Louisiana.

BTF: Which race this season do you believe held some of the best racing?

JH: Indy, I think, was pretty exceptional in that sense. Obviously Fontana was pretty out there with the quality of the racing. Then, like I said, Barber was a great event too. There were a bunch. We tend to have a lot of good tracks in IndyCar. You know, Detroit with the weather was a big deal. There were some great on-track battles this year.

BTF: What is one track that IndyCar does not race at right now that you would like to see an Indy race at?

JH: A month ago I would have said Road America but they’ve taken care of that now so, Phoenix would have been another one, so it’s great to see that we’re going back to those two venues. But I’ve heard of some great races at Michigan back in the day and obviously tracks like Laguna Seca are classic tracks that would be awesome to hold a race at. But honestly, I think our schedule right now is pretty stout.

BTF: Think back to when you were a kid. What is one track that the IndyCar Series raced at then that isn’t on the schedule now that you would like to see a race at again?

JH: Hm. Man, again I would have said Road America a month ago, but the Vancouver track doesn’t exist anymore unfortunately, or else I would have said that. In the mid-2000s, Champ Car raced at Montreal and I got to race there in the junior category growing up. But I would love a chance to get to go back there. It’s an awesome city, the Canadian fans are super passionate about open wheel, and it’s a great race track.

So, if we could get back to Montreal that would be incredible.

BTF: If you weren’t in racing, what would you be doing?

JH: I don’t know, I probably wouldn’t be talking to you! (laughs) Honestly, I don’t know. I imagine I would still be involved in the sport somehow. I was a fan of racing long before I was ever involved in it as a driver, so I’d like to think that in some way or another my career path would have had me still involved in motorsports in general because it was such a passion of mine from such a young age.

BTF: If your IndyCar career ended right now, would you still try to be involved in the sport to some capacity?

JH: Absolutely. You can’t just take it away from me like that. You know, I’ve been very lucky, very fortunate, I’ve had some opportunities to do some work in the broadcasting side of things with commentating and reporting and things like that. So, I think moving into something like that is probably what I would do.

BTF: What are some other forms of motorsport you would like to try?

JH: I’d love to get behind the wheel of a stock car and try that out. It’s always a thing that’s kind of fascinated me. You see a lot of really good open wheel drivers try stock cars and they’ll struggle because it’s so different and that challenge interests me and excites me.

But I’d also love to drive over at Le Mans. I’ve done [24 Hours of] Daytona, I’ve been fortunate enough to do Daytona a bunch of times. Driving those prototype cars is very cool as well.

BTF: You say you would like to give stock cars a try. If you had a chance to pick which team you could drive for, which team would you pick? 

JH: You’d pick Hendrick [Motorsports], wouldn’t you?

BTF: Which Sprint Cup Series driver would you pick to win this season’s Chase for the Sprint Cup?

JH: After the last couple of weeks it’s hard to bet against [Joey] Logano, you know? But at the same time there’s a lot of good guys in that field still. With the way that format is so much is up in the air until Homestead. Personally, I’d love to see Jeff win one more on his way out. I’ve been a Gordon fan since I was in grade six. So to see him have another one would be awesome.

BTF: Could you ever see yourself, as an IndyCar driver, doing the Memorial Day double like Tony Stewart or Kurt Busch?

JH: I would love to try it. If I thought I was competitive enough in the stock cars and had a good enough car to do it I would love to try it one day.

BTF: You’re also involved with Flat 12 Bierworks. What led to that partnership?

JH: It was a meeting from a mutual friend, really. Flat 12 is big in the community in Indianapolis, and they like getting behind local events, and obviously the 500 is the biggest one of the year. So we sort of started talking and the idea of doing a beer came up and it was kind of smooth sailing from then on.

BTF: How would you describe the Hinchtown Hammer Down Golden Ale? Where did it get that name?

JH: It was actually a Twitter contest to name it. So I explained I was going to be collaborating with Flat 12 on a beer and we were looking for a name. We had, I think, 130-something responses from fans on Twitter and we kind of got around and picked the top-five and then from there it was pretty unanimous that Hammer Down was the one to go with.

It’s a nice, light beer, easy drinking but still has a little flavor and kind of still has that craft taste that beer aficionados would appreciate.

BTF: Say Hinchtown becomes an actual city. As the mayor, where would you locate it? What would be your first decree as mayor?

JH: I would probably locate it on the start/finish line of the exhibition track in Toronto. My first decree would be no speed limits.

Special thanks to James Hincliffe (@Hinchtown) and Monica Hilton (@242MPH) for this interview.