Hildebrand Doesn't Need Redemption, But He'd Take It
May 22, 2015 | By Phillip B. Wilson, IMS.com Correspondent
In a perfect world, his road would be the path to racing redemption.
But John R. “JR” Hildebrand is too smart to expect that. He can’t live the rest of his life in the past, even if one racing moment could be what most remember about him.
Go ahead, ask him about it. He’s never hid from what happened in 2011, when a memorable rookie ride came within one turn of an Indianapolis 500 triumph. But, alas, his Panther Racing machine crashed in Turn 4, and Dan Wheldon sped ahead to victory in one of the most stunning conclusions in race history.
That should have buried Hildebrand. Seriously, who lives that down?
He has. And will continue to do so, as if it’s no big deal. Hildebrand’s No. 6 Preferred Freezer/CFH Racing Chevrolet will start 10th, on the inside of Row 4, in Sunday’s 99th Indianapolis 500.
“He’s a smart, articulate guy, and he’s also a fast driver,” said CFH Racing boss and teammate Ed Carpenter. “It’s not surprising that he took the high road and the right road in how he dealt with that.”
Josef Newgarden was a Hildebrand fan before they became teammates this year. He’s said for two years that if he couldn’t win the Indy 500, he’d want to see Hildebrand do it.
“I think that’s a lot of why people love JR because I don’t think he could have handled the situation better than he did,” Newgarden said. “It’s one of those things that happened, he handled it like a true champ, and he moves onto the next one. He’s got more chances to win the race now. He’s got a chance this year with this team. He’s just as capable as anyone in this paddock, I can tell you that.”
Hildebrand has been back to Indy in each of the last four years, has answered the inevitable 2011 question so many times, and then sets his mind to chasing down racing’s ultimate accomplishment.
“It gets easier as the years go on, for sure,” he said. “We’ve talked about this before. I had to kind of face it front and center right away. It’s not a hassle to deal with. It’s something that obviously is a part of my story here at Indy. I come back every year knowing that I was pretty damn close my first shot at it. Just keep having an open mind, keep learning and keep trying to figure the little things out. That’s all you can do.”
He doesn’t overthink it because he’s wise beyond his 27 years. This is a guy who was a National Merit Scholar in high school and accepted to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He no longer has a full-time ride in the Verizon IndyCar Series, so the California native has been spending much of his free time in Colorado, enjoying some mountain biking and creating an education-based, non-profit Ground Effects Education program. It’s about engineering, math and physics, how to put racing technology in context for kids in school. The plan is to launch that program at the end of the month.
“I’ve stayed busy doing other stuff,” he said, “because it was starting to drive me crazy, just as long as you have to wait to get back in the car when you’re not full-time. It’s always good to be back here. I look forward to it every year.”
He’s actually drawn from the positives of 2011. Nobody expected him to win and many didn’t even know who he was, yet there he was closing in on the win. That he came so close gives him the confidence to believe he can accomplish anything.
“Looking back at it now, frankly that year, we were a top-five car but we weren’t going to win that race unless those set of circumstances presented themselves,” he said of superior fuel strategy putting him in position to win. “We were having a good race, but we weren’t going to start passing (Scott) Dixon and all of those other guys to make our way up to the front on track.
“It’s just a reminder, now looking back at it, that kind of stuff can happen. You can think that you’re out of it at the end and have circumstances play into your favor, but the big thing just becomes doing all the little things as a part of the process building up to the race to make sure you’re as prepared as you possibly can be for any of those scenarios. That’s what I take away from it, in terms of how it’s changed my outlook on the race.”
Hildebrand actually thought last year’s Ed Carpenter Racing ride was his best.
“Last year, by far, was the best car I’ve ever had here,” he said. “We passed like 15 cars in about 30 laps at the end of the race, coming all the way from the back to finish 10th. I’ve had a lot of different experiences here, a lot of different types of cars, a lot of different types of races, as everybody has. Having that first one be so important and so memorable for me in terms of how it all went down really amplified my level of focus every year since. OK, what are like some of those little things that I can get better at to continue to try to put myself in a position where I’m back there again.”
He can still be found in the same Gasoline Alley C garage, just like in his Panther Racing days. He mentions the irony with amusement, as if to remind, “some things never change.”
Hopefully, some day, they will for Hildebrand, in terms of his racing legacy. Maybe he can win an Indy 500, and people will remember him for that race instead of the one that slipped away.
“I haven’t been as close to winning this race as he has been, but as close as I’ve been to doing it, I know what the pain feels like,” Carpenter said. “I’ve got a taste for what he felt after that, and still feels. It’s not something that goes away. I think you use that as motivation and confidence. When we did the deal with him last year, being able to talk about the near-miss, the whole time I’ve never seen it as a near-miss. I saw it as a guy who did everything to put himself in position to win the race. He was just one turn away, it didn’t work out, but he knows how to get the job done.”
Whatever happens, Hildebrand will roll with it. If he never ends up in Victory Lane at IMS and 2011 is his 15 seconds of fame, so be it. He can live with that.
“That’s something that I had to drop a long time ago,” he said. “You look at Tony Kanaan. How many years (12) did it take for him to get to Victory Lane? There’s a lot of guys who run great here, Michael Andretti, and it just doesn’t ever fall into place.
“That’s something that I’ll be able to cope with, but it doesn’t take away the drive to do every little thing you can to make it happen if the opportunity presents itself.”