James Hinchcliffe, Andretti Autosport
The cast: Race engineer – Nathan O’Rourke. Race strategist – George Klotz. Chief mechanic – Dave Sharpley.
Twitter: @Hinchtown, @FollowAndretti
The car: No. 27 Honda, United Fiber & Data primary sponsor
The driver: The “Mayor of Hinchtown” turns 28 on Dec. 5. The day after, the Toronto native and fellow Verizon IndyCar Series driver Marco Andretti embark on a seven-day Caribbean cruise aboard the SeaDream II. … A Mazda Road to Indy graduate, he has started 68 Verizon IndyCar Series races over four seasons. He broke into the series with Newman/Haas Racing.
Season finish: Placed 12th in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings – five points out of 11th – in his third full season with Andretti Autosport. Placed eighth in the 2013 standings, collecting three victories.
The gist: Earlier this month, Hinchcliffe signed a multi-year agreement with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to drive the No. 77 Honda entry. He drove for team co-owner Sam Schmidt in the 2009 Indy Lights season (five podium finishes; fifth in standings). … He won the Sunoco Rookie of the Year and Tony Renna Rising Star awards following the 2011 season. … The golden ale, Hinchtown Hammer Down, brewed by Flat 12 Bierwerks in Indianapolis is named in his honor.
Season stats: Hinchcliffe was quick in qualifying on road/street courses, starting on the front row four times, though he wasn’t able to collect the $10,000 Verizon P1 Award in any race. He also tied his personal high by qualifying second for the 98th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Overall, he qualified in the top 10 in 11 of the 18 races, but top-10 finishes followed in five of those races. … His best result of third at Mid-Ohio in early August came after advancing 14 positions relative to his qualifying spot. … He added a fifth place three races later at Auto Club Speedway to close the season. … Hinchcliffe led five races for a total of 75 laps – with finishes of fifth at Auto Club Speedway, third at Mid-Ohio, fifth at Houston1, fifth at Belle Isle2 and 28th in the Indianapolis 500 (contact). … He was running at the finish in 15 races.
Year over year: 2013 best qualifying of second at Milwaukee (9.1 average), best finish of first at St. Petersburg, Sao Paulo and Iowa (12.3 average). 2014 best qualifying of second at Long Beach, Barber, Indianapolis, Belle Isle1 and Belle Isle2 (8.1 average), best finish of third at Mid-Ohio (12.3 average).
Video: James Hinchcliffe reviews his season
He said it: “2014 was a character-building year in a lot of ways, but at the same time I think everybody on the 27 car crew performed really well. The car was consistently fast and I think my driving was a step above where it was in 2013. We might not have the results to show it, but that's due to a lot of things that were outside our control."
The chart (below): Looking at how Hinchcliffe finished relative to his qualifying position in the 18 races:
Click to download the hi-res infographic
