Photo Credit; Chris Jones/IndyCar
James Hinchcliffe, driver of the No. 5 Arrow Electronics Honda, dominated in Texas but came up short in a heart pounding edge of your seat final lap in the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The race which was originally held on June 12 was red flagged for rain and the Canadian driver made the right call that put him in the lead when the race was postponed. When the race resumed, the 2011 IndyCar Rookie of the Year took off like a rocket.
“We got the lead the first half of this race back in June by really building a car to take care of tires because that’s been always the name of the game here in Texas,” Hinchcliffe stated. “And we did that. We did that better than anybody by a good chunk, too. I’m so proud of the guys. I’m so proud of the car they put together to roll off the truck still in totally different conditions — I mean, we were here in June, we had 10 minutes of practice, which was only six minutes of practice, and having the best car I’ve ever had at Texas, maybe we were trying too hard at every other race. But stops were great, strategy was great, I thought we were great in traffic. Like I said, we built the car for long runs, so that first caution, I was like, all right, that’s unfortunate but it’s the last stop, everything should be okay. We still have 30 something laps to go. And then as they kept coming and the laps counted down and down, I knew it was going to be harder and harder, and we held off the charges from Ed and from Tony.
“But ultimately that call to come and get tires at the end there, that last stop, I think that was the difference for Graham, and it wasn’t much. I gave him the bottom into 3. I had to make a decision because I thought he could get the run off of 2, and when I was going side by — that whole last run, the last five, six laps I was side by side with Tony and I was timing the line. I’ve seen so many races won here on the high line, coming to the line because you just have that momentum off of 4, and I was going — thinking back to my IRL Classic days and Sam Hornish Jr.’s tricks and all the rest of it, but man, Graham just pulled through 3 and 4 like no one had all night. I mean, we made a run again on him at the end there and it got pretty close, but congrats to him, and like I said, big credit to the team. It’s just tough having a car like that and leading that many laps but not the one that counted.”
The Oakville, Ontario Canada led 188 laps out of 248 and says he is really bummed he didn’t win because he didn’t get the cowboy that. He says he has been racing at TMS for eight years and still hasn’t won one.
“Starting out a bit with tire degradation, but certainly at the end we put on a hell of a show for the fans, and that’s what we’re here for,” Hinchcliffe quoted. “It would have been a lot more boring if some car just won by half a straightaway. But the racing seemed pretty good, and I can’t thank Graham and Tony and Simon and all the guys up there enough. We put ourselves in some pretty precarious situations tonight and everybody came out okay. Nobody did anything stupid, and everybody played nice, very respectful. There was some racing, thought. I had a blast. That’s the problem. I had an absolute blast. Had I not led every lap of the race, I would be much happier than I am.
“But it was good old-fashioned mile-and-a-half racing. This is why I wish we had more mile-and-a-half tracks on the schedule. This is a lot of fun for us. People have got to pedal the car, it’s not just wide-open racing the whole stint like it was in days past with the car.”
As the laps wound down and one of the last cautions came out, many of the remaining drivers took to pit road for tires and fuel. Hinch however, decided to stay out. Despite the heartbreak and finishing second, Hinch credits his crew for their hard work throughout the whole night.
“Well, it’s my fault, because I lapped everybody up to fifth place before those cautions started flying, so when you’ve got that many new cars on the lead lap, that’s how many positions you lose when you pit.” Hinch added. “So if you’re pitting from third, there’s only five cars on the lead lap, you only lose two spots. Because we got down to under 15 laps, on ovals with 15 laps to go, they run all the lap cars through pit lane and cycle them to the back of the field. Had that not been the case, he’d have come out mired in a bunch of traffic. Still in the top five and on the lead lap but with quite a few more cars to get through. It’s just the way the rule is written, and it’s done to put on a good show for the fans, and I support the rule, but that’s kind of the rule that bit us today. If I had just gone a bit slower and only lapped up to like 15th, it would have been a way harder call for him.”
