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IndyCar: James Hinchcliffe all class after losing ride he was promised

By Asher Fair

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 20: James Hinchcliffe #5 of United States and Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda prepares to drive during practice for the NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 20, 2019 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 20: James Hinchcliffe #5 of United States and Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda prepares to drive during practice for the NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 20, 2019 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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James Hinchcliffe was all class after learning that he would not have a ride with Arrow McLaren Racing SP in the 2020 IndyCar season.

Several reports, based on nothing more than quotes by Arrow McLaren Racing SP team co-owner Sam Schmidt and McLaren CEO Zak Brown, confirmed that James Hinchcliffe would be back with the team in the 2020 IndyCar season. At one point, Schmidt even questioned why speculation suggested otherwise.

He even had a contract that ran through 2020.

Hinchcliffe had driven the #5 Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports since the 2015 season, and despite the fact that the team’s partnership with McLaren and switch to Chevrolet engines would upset his ties to Honda, he was still in line to continue on for a sixth year with the team next year.

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But that won’t happen.

2018 and 2019 Indy Lights champions Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew were confirmed by Arrow McLaren Racing SP as their two drivers for the 2020 season.

Hinchcliffe is technically still “under contract” with the team, meaning that he effectively has the right to do absolutely nothing but still get paid, provided he doesn’t land elsewhere.

After remaining silent throughout the week as this all went down, the 32-year-old Canadian took to social media after losing his ride with Arrow McLaren Racing SP — again, a ride he had been promised on several occasions by several prominent individuals within the organization.

But Hinchcliffe, who is now feverishly searching for a ride for next year with a very limited number of options within the Honda teams this late in the game, was nothing but classy about it.

The two most heavily rumored landing spots for Hinchcliffe for the 2020 season, assuming he lands a full-time ride, are a third car at Dale Coyne Racing and a third car at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, but neither team have committed to running three cars even though both have stated that they would, at the very least, consider adding Hinchcliffe to their driver lineups.

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Will James Hinchcliffe be back in IndyCar in 2020? He certainly isn’t looking simply to collect money from Arrow McLaren Racing SP, and if there is one driver who everyone knows can get back up after being kicked down, it’s Hinchcliffe.