IndyCar: Hildebrand’s Best Chance To Win Is His First Race Back
By Ric
J. R. Hildebrand’s name hasn’t been at the front in 2017, and it wasn’t anywhere at all in Barber. But Part II of Chance II starts in Phoenix, and it might just start with a win.
Winning in a comeback race is uncommon.
As an adjunct vehicular dynamics lecturer at Stanford University, J. R. Hildebrand is an uncommon racer.
It shouldn’t be a shock if Hildebrand is among the contenders in IndyCar’s next race this weekend at the Phoenix International Raceway. He’s always been a man of surprises.
Hildebrand turned down MIT to pursue IndyCar. He showed up in a Formula One test in late 2009 despite having spent almost all his career in the United States. As a rookie, he almost won the Indy 500.
Even his hairstyle has made those who haven’t seen him in a while look twice.
But it’s that Indy 500—and the fact 2017 is already a comeback of sorts—that make Hildebrand in great need of another unexpected move when IndyCar arrives in Arizona. With a career defined by crashing out of the lead in the 800th turn of an 800-turn race, Hildebrand lacks an accomplishment that matches his Indy Lights title-winning talent.
Now, Hildebrand starts the second act of his second scene, having ended his first full-time stint in IndyCar with an early wreck at the 2013 500 that led to his firing. Act one of his next full-time ride, some four years later, hasn’t gone off much better. Through two races, Hildebrand’s best result is eleventh at Long Beach.
And that eleventh came with the broken wrist that left him sidelined at Barber—a high price for a mid-pack result.
All the while, his teammate, Spencer Pigot, has shown up for Ed Carpenter Racing. Pigot scored a top ten in Long Beach, and ran near the front—well ahead of Hildebrand—at St. Petersburg before his luck changed.
The comparison to Pigot, however, is still more favorable than that to Josef Newgarden, who piloted Hildebrand’s car last season. The #21 entry won at Iowa Speedway, took three other podiums, and ended fourth in the standings.
Related Story: Josef Newgarden: From Next To Now
Then again, if Hildebrand’s one to surprise, setting expectations low only sets him up to do what he does best. In his favor? Even Newgarden was slow to start last year, and his win came on a short oval like Phoenix. Hildebrand himself has never finished outside the top ten in an oval race with the Carpenter team. His best IndyCar finish, aside from the crash-into-second at Indy, is a fourth, also at the bullring Iowa.
More importantly, Hildebrand and stablemate Ed Carpenter were fast in the preseason tests on the 1-mile oval just outside Phoenix.
So, don’t be surprised by a surprise this weekend. Yes, Hildebrand won zero oval races in his Indy Lights championship season. Yes, he’s off to a slow start to the season, and yes, in a career that began in 2010, he’s off to a slow start in general.
But Phoenix is an uncommon track, dogleg and all. And the long-haired, unconventionally intelligent J. R. Hildebrand?
Well, he’s as uncommon as it gets.