According to Nathan Brown of The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday, James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, Ontario will return to Team Andretti for the 2021 IndyCar season. Hinchcliffe only raced in six of the 14 IndyCar races in 2020. He initially signed a three-race deal with Andretti Autosport on February 19, but was able to participate in three more races at the end of the season when the team cut ties with Zach Veach of Stockdale, Ohio.
Hinchcliffe’s best finish in 2020 was a seventh place at the Indianapolis 500, a race won by Takuma Sato of Japan. Things were promising for Hinchcliffe before the race started as he had the fastest time on the opening day of practice (224.526 miles per hour), and started sixth on the grid (the outside car of row two) after qualifying.
Hinchcliffe was previously with Andretti Autosport from 2012 to 2014. In 2013, he won three races at St. Petersburg, Sao Paulo, and Iowa. Hinchcliffe went on to win three more times with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports from 2015 to 2018.
When not competing in 2020, Hinchcliffe worked as an auto racing analyst for the NBC Sports Network. He not only analyzed IndyCar, but NASCAR as well. Last week it was reported that the NBC Sports Network would fold at the end of 2021.
