Indy 500: James Hinchcliffe announcement looming

By Asher Fair | Feb 19, 2020

LEXINGTON, OH - AUGUST 01: James Hinchcliffe of Canada driver of the #27 Andretti Autosport Dallara Honda stands on pit lane prior to practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on August 1, 2014 in Lexington, Ohio. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /

Andretti Autosport are expected to confirm James Hinchcliffe as the sixth driver in their lineup for the 104th running of the Indy 500 this May.

James Hinchcliffe is still looking for a ride for the 2020 IndyCar season after he was cut by Arrow McLaren SP when they confirmed 2018 and 2019 Indy Lights champions Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew as their two full-time drivers for the upcoming season back in October.

It has become ever clearer that any ride for the 2020 season for Hinchcliffe will not be a full-time ride, but he recently acquired financial backing from Genesys for the two races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: the GMR Grand Prix at the road course on Saturday, May 9 and the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 at the oval on Sunday, May 24.

He has since released two videos on Twitter subtly indicating that an official announcement about his IndyCar future could be on its way relatively soon.

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Now, according to RACER, Andretti Autosport have scheduled a press conference at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for later this morning.

The fact that Hinchcliffe remains tied to Honda, the fact that he has backing from Genesys and the fact that Fernando Alonso’s Indy 500 deal with the powerhouse Honda team recently fell through has led to the assumption that this press conference could be about the 33-year-old Canadian landing an Indy 500 ride.

Hinchcliffe drove for Andretti Autosport from 2012 to 2014 before making the move to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, which became Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2019 and then Arrow McLaren SP ahead of the 2020 season when McLaren formed a partnership with them, leading to Hinchcliffe’s ousting.

Alonso was reportedly lined up to compete in a number of races after the Indy 500 for Andretti Autosport as well, so it remains to be seen what Hinchcliffe’s commitment would be if he does indeed end up with Michael Andretti’s team for this year’s running of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) superspeedway oval in Speedway, Indiana.

Andretti Autosport already have five full-time drivers and a technical alliance with the one-car Meyer Shank Racing team. Zach Veach, Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Colton Herta and Marco Andretti drive the #26 Honda, #27 Honda, #28 Honda, #88 Honda and #98 Honda, respectively. Jack Harvey drives the #60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing.

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Fernando Alonso was slated to drive the #29 Honda, so that will likely be where James Hinchcliffe ends up. What will his commitment throughout the 2020 IndyCar season be? Stay tuned for an official announcement from Andretti Autosport later this morning.