IndyCar: Will James Hinchcliffe bounce back from Indy 500 disappointment?

By Asher Fair | May 17, 2019

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 08: James Hinchcliffe, driver of the #5 Arrow Electronics SPM Honda, sits in his car during practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 8, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

James Hinchcliffe was one of two IndyCar drivers who failed to qualify for the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 last year. Will he bounce back this year?

A total of 35 drivers attempted to qualify for last year’s running of the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar‘s most prestigious race, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the highest amount since 41 drivers attempted to do so for the 95th running of the race back in 2011.

As a result, to preserve the tradition of a 33-car field for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, two of these 35 drivers would ultimately fail to qualify for the 102nd running of the Indy 500.

One of the drivers who ended up failing to do so was Schmidt Peterson Motorsports full-time driver James Hinchcliffe, who withdrew his qualifying speed after being bumped from the field of 33 and then aborted what ended up being his final qualifying attempt around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana for the race.

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Hinchcliffe tried to make another qualifying attempt, but Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi went back out onto the track before he did to try to improve his time and break into the top nine to advance to the Fast Nine Shootout.

Additionally, Dale Coyne Racing’s Pippa Mann, who was also fighting to bump her way back into the field of 33, went out on the track before Hinchcliffe did and completed her entire four-lap attempt, which ultimately ended up being unsuccessful and resulted in not enough time being left out for the 32-year-old Canadian to make another attempt.

After starting in the top two in every even-numbered Indy 500 in which he had ever competed (second place in 2012, second in 2014 and the pole position in 2016), Hinchcliffe failed to qualify for the 102nd edition of the race.

Will he bounce back this year with a total of 36 drivers set to attempt to qualify for the 103rd running of the Indy 500?

You can probably count on one hand the number of people who expected Hinchcliffe to fail to qualify for last year’s Indy 500, especially after he did not finish any of the season’s first five races outside of the top nine and the fact that he sat in fifth place in the championship standings and within striking distance of first heading into this race.

After all, he needed to beat just two of the other 34 competitors to get into the field of 33. But he still couldn’t do it.

So the fact that Hinchcliffe appears to be a lock to qualify for this year’s Indy 500 may not mean much. That said, this year, he is set to enter this race knowing that he has something to prove. There are no two ways about it; what happened last year caught everybody off guard.

What happened after the Virginia Cavaliers became the first #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament? They bounced back the following year as a #1 seed, and from a big deficit to another #16 seed, to win their first championship in school history.

I am sure Hinchcliffe would like to forget about what happened last year, but at the same time, I am sure he doesn’t. As long as he uses it as motivation and not to define him, he should have no problem qualifying for the Indy 500 once again.

Nothing will be blindsiding him this year, that’s for sure.

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Will James Hinchcliffe make his first start in the Indianapolis 500 since 2017 in the 103rd running of IndyCar‘s most prestigious race? He along with the other 35 drivers on the entry list for this race are set to make their qualifying attempts on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19.