Photo Credit: Chris Owens/IndyCar
James Hinchcliffe, driver of the No.5 Arrow Honda, started out his qualification day for the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by originally qualifying in the 11th spot. Even though it wasn’t in the Fast Nine his car still looked good and he had one more attempt. Then on his second attempt he put his car in the top position and held onto it for the rest of the time left in quals.
“No, it was,” Hinchcliffe said. “It was pretty good. I mean it was really good. What am I talking about? Huge credit to the Schmidt Peterson Motorsport guys. They’ve worked so hard on these race cars since back in February. We’ve got three quick ones. I mean, the 77 and the 7 were quick as well.
“After our first run, we didn’t quite maximize. I made some mistakes on my shifting pattern. I was kind of mad at myself about that. Kind of got in my own head a little bit. We made some changes. We knew everybody was going to go out again and try and improve. And we made a couple changes to the car, because, I mean, the Arrow Electronics car was not only fast but it held on for all four laps.
“The consistency was there. That was a big key today. It doesn’t mean much today; it’s bragging rights. It’s pay for the boys, because it validates all the effort they put into this race car. It gets us in the Fast Nine, obviously, which was what the big point today was and hopefully we can go out there tomorrow and do something similar.”
However, a lot of drivers said their first qualifying lap was the hardest qualifying lap that they have ever had at IMS.
“No, it is,” Hinchcliffe said. “In the heat of the moment all you’re thinking about is the moment. You’re thinking about the competition, you’re thinking about getting the best out of your car and the best out of yourself. For sure, our first run, same thing. That was the hardest qualifying attempt I had ever done at the Speedway here.
“When you kind of take a step back and let yourself think about it a little bit, it does feel good, for sure. This racetrack means a lot to everybody in the series, everybody in the sport. And the city of Indianapolis has been so behind me from day one after the deal a year ago. It’s great to come out here and do something like that. But doesn’t matter until it matters. Like I say, we’ve got the car in the Fast Nine and that’s what matters for today, but let’s see if we can do something strong tomorrow.”
With this being qualifying for the 100th Running of the Indy 500, most of the drivers and crews were all on edge today, especially since IndyCar announced that there were new rules going into the qualification weekend. It put them overly on edge.
“I think it’s cool,” Hinchcliffe stated. “A lot of people were kind of giving today flack because there were only 33 cars and it wasn’t really necessarily a Bump Day. But I think everybody sitting up here will tell you that the competitive spirit about trying to get in the Fast Nine, we were stressing between our first and second runs as if we were sitting on the bubble for the race. So there was definitely drama for the race teams and for the drivers with the conditions and a lot of things. Even though we only had 33 cars show up today, I think it was still a very exciting format.”
During the four-lap most drivers went strong the first two-laps but then during the third and fourth laps their time fell off.
“That’s kind of always the case here,” Hinchcliffe said. “When you get this light on downforce, the tires are your biggest thing that slows you down the most at that point. So we saw today, especially with the wind earlier, making it last four laps was a huge deal. Ultimately that’s what helped us out. We weren’t as quick as Ryan there at the end or even Will had faster laps but the car held on. So that’s something we wanted to make sure happened. We kind of did it backwards in the first run. Our last lap was actually our quickest, but that was mainly my fault. It was nice to kind of get it right the second time around.”
This year Happy Hour for qualifications day was moved to later in the evening. It started at 6:00 p.m. and went until 7:00 p.m. ET because of Daylights savings time. Hinch was not into agreement of the idea at first because he thought it was for practice as well as quals, but once it was clarified that it was just for quals he was okay with it.
“I was going to say absolutely not,” Hinch said. “Yeah, I know. But the problem is after you get out of the car — did you mean in practice or just today? Oh, sorry. Yeah, that’s fine. I thought you meant every day. It’s the crews. I don’t care about me, it’s the crews. These guys turn ridiculous hours. They’re here stupid early in the morning. I was saying for practice days we should start earlier and end earlier, but that’s not what you asked, so I’ll shut up.”
After the accident during practice prior to the Indy 500 last year, Hinch was not able to race in the race. So this year now that he back and better than ever he is really excited to put what happened last year in the past and get the race started however he looks at the race the same as every year.
“As much as I was looking forward to it last year and as much as I was looking forward to it the year before and the year before,” he said. “You don’t approach the month any differently. I don’t think I’m looking at it any differently I have before or any differently than any of the guys sitting up here. Unfortunately what happened last year I had to miss it, but hopefully we get through the next couple days and we line up on the grid and get to enjoy it like everybody else.”
Hinch’s teammate Mikhail Aleshin barely got his car out onto track before they fired the gun ended qualifying and he ended up locking himself into the Fast Nine along with Hinch. Hinch was proud of Aleshin as well as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
“Yeah, I was in the garage watching on TV,” Hinchcliffe added. “Awesome, he just walked in. Good job, Buddy. Come up here. What are you sitting down there for? Bring your chair.
“It was awesome. I mean, like I said before, it validates all the effort that Schmidt Peterson Motorsport guys put into these cars since February. Oriol was quick early and he probably could have been up there as well if the timing had been a bit better. It’s great for the team. I’m really happy for all the boys.”
Aleshin litterally followed Hinch’s orders and took the chair he was sitting in at the time and went up on stage and sat down.
Seeing that the Hinch we all know and love, means he is back but he also has a new found confidence.
