IndyCar: 5 possible landing spots for James Hinchcliffe in 2020
By Asher Fair
James Hinchcliffe will not drive for Arrow McLaren Racing SP in the 2020 IndyCar season. Where will he end up, if anywhere?
Back in August, James Hinchcliffe supposedly had a contract to drive for Arrow McLaren Racing SP in the 2020 IndyCar season.
Hinchcliffe had driven for Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports since the 2015 season, and he was under contract with the team through next year. This remained the case even when they formed a partnership with McLaren to form Arrow McLaren Racing SP.
Most notably, it remained the case when the team announced that they had ended their contract with Honda one year early and switched to Chevrolet engines.
The 32-year-old Canadian has served as a spokesman for Honda and has deep ties to the company and to counterpart Honda Canada, and this switch would naturally upset those ties, so there was still speculation that this wouldn’t happen.
But he stated that he was excited to work with General Motors again, and both Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team co-owner Sam Schmidt and McLaren CEO Zak Brown stated that he had a contract to remain with the team on multiple occasions despite speculation otherwise. At one point, Schmidt even stated that he wasn’t sure what all the speculation was about.
Now we know; 2018 and 2019 Indy Lights champions Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew are set to drive for Arrow McLaren Racing SP in the 2020 season.
Even though many people saw this coming, especially after the whole debacle with Arrow, Hinchcliffe and ESPN, Hinchcliffe and his team were blindsided by the move, and the fan-favorite is now looking for a ride.
Where might he end up in the 2020 season?