IndyCar: Post-Season Driver Grades

Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet. JR HILDEBRAND. D. Not including the Phoenix and Iowa races, JR Hildebrand’s season would have been clearly deserving of an “F” grade, as he had no top 10 finishes in the other 15 races. However, the fact is, those races were his best two races, and not only did he finish in the top 10 in both of them, but he finished on the podium in both of them, so he is saved from getting an “F”. He even tied his career-high finish of 2nd place at Iowa, and he didn’t hit the turn 4 wall to secure it.. No. 21

C. James Hinchcliffe looked like he was shot out of a cannon to start the season. He opened up the season with a strong showing at St. Petersburg before a caution flag ruined his pit strategy and thus his chance at a win, and he followed that up with a win at Long Beach and a 6th place finish at Barber. However, in the 14 races after that, he finished in the top 9 just three times, and he ended the season with just five finishes higher than 20th place in the last 10 races of the year.. No. 5. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda. JAMES HINCHCLIFFE

A-. If you take away Graham Rahal’s start to the season, particularly the first four or even six races, you get a driver that would have been a legitimate threat to win this season’s championship. In the first four races of the season, he finished higher than 13th place just once, and in the first six races of the season, he finished higher than 10th just once. In the 11 races after that, he won twice and finished lower than 9th just once en route to a 6th place finish in the final standings as the only Honda driver to win multiple races in 2017.. No. 15. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda. GRAHAM RAHAL