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IndyCar: Could Andretti Autosport expand James Hinchcliffe’s deal?

By Asher Fair

NEWTON, IA - JUNE 23: James Hinchcliffe of Canada, driver of the #27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet pours champagne on himself as he celebrates winning the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway on June 23, 2013 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
NEWTON, IA - JUNE 23: James Hinchcliffe of Canada, driver of the #27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet pours champagne on himself as he celebrates winning the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway on June 23, 2013 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /
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Andretti Autosport confirmed James Hinchcliffe for three races in the 2020 IndyCar season, including the Indy 500. Could they add more?

Even after Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports formed a partnership with McLaren and switched to Chevrolet engines for the 2020 IndyCar season, Honda favorite James Hinchcliffe appeared to be slated to drive for the newly branded Arrow McLaren SP team in 2020.

But that ended up not happening, as he was cut by the team in favor of 2018 and 2019 Indy Lights champions Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew.

The 33-year-old Canadian went several months without anything being confirmed about his IndyCar future, until recently.

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Last month, he acquired sponsorship from Genesys to compete in the two races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May: the GMR Grand Prix at the track’s road course on Saturday, May 9 and the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 at the track’s oval on Sunday, May 24.

Hinchcliffe hinted that an announcement about his future in America’s premier open-wheel racing series was pending when he released two separate videos on his Twitter account earlier this month.

That announcement officially came earlier this week when Andretti Autosport, the team for which he drove on a full-time basis from 2012 to 2014, confirmed that he would be their sixth driver in the aforementioned two races as well as the Texas Indy 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 6. He is slated to drive the #29 Honda in these three races.

But is there a chance that this deal with his former team will end up including more than just three races on the 17-race 2020 schedule?

Yes, although his home race, the Honda Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario on Sunday, July 12, won’t be one of them.

As for the rest of the schedule, there are a “few other races”, none of which were named specifically, in which the #29 Honda could make an appearance with the Mayor of Hinchtown behind the wheel, according to team owner Michael Andretti.

Here is what Andretti had to say about the matter, according to RACER.

"“We might be able to run Hinch in a few other races. But unfortunately Toronto won’t be one of them.”"

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James Hinchcliffe is set to join Andretti Autosport’s five full-time drivers, including Marco Andretti, Colton Herta, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi and Zach Veach, in whichever races he ends up competing throughout the 2020 IndyCar season, including the three that have already been confirmed.

Where else might he compete this year? He is a two-time winner at Iowa Speedway, and he has also won on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida and the streets of Long Beach, California before.