Photo Credit: Chris Owens/IndyCar
James Hinchcliffe, driver of the No. 5 Schmidt Perterson Motorsports Arrow Electronic Honda, nabbed his first top-10 of the season at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach with an eighth place finish on Sunday. It marked a solid finish as he makes his comeback behind the seat.
After missing most of last season due to an devastating injury he suffered in practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the running of the Indianapolis 500 last May, he hasn’t had the comeback that he wanted with issues in the first two races.
He came into the season opener the St Petersburg Grand Prix at St Petersburg last month ready to strike, but an early spin in the race followed by a wreck would put him out of contention and he finished in 19th position.
Next up in the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix at Phoenix Raceway, his issues would begin in practice as he would see his car hit the wall and need repairs. Due to the repairs that needed to be made, he wasn’t able to qualify the car thus he would have to start 22nd the last car in the line-up. Being that this was a short track race he was lapped early in the race and fought hard to come back from that, but just could not and finished in 18th.
But Long Beach was just the turning point he needed as he was in the top-10 in speeds for all three practices and also was the fastest qualifying Honda in seventh position. In morning warn-ups before the race, he again found himself in the top-10 in speeds.
During the race he fought hard and was never out of the top-10 and went on to finish in the eighth spot.
“It’s been a bittersweet day really,” he said. “It was nice to come away with a Top-10 and we had a good first stint, stayed out of trouble and kept up with the guys in front of us. On the first pit sequence, we sort of got bad timing and just as we had finished our stop and were about to be released Munoz was entering his box. This ultimately cost us getting out and Takuma Sato was able to jump us in the stops and that really what differentiated us; he had that little bit better track position, stayed in front of the guys in the next round of stops and came away with a Top-five. I think we had his pace, definitely had more pace than the guys ahead of us right at the end, we just didn’t have the opportunity to get around them.”
Next up for him is The Indy Honda Grand Prix of Alabama, at Barber Motorsport Park where he hopes to keep this momentum going.
