A Canadian driver whose 2015 Indianapolis crash became one of the sport's defining comebacks, followed by a second career in the commentary booth.
James Hinchcliffe is a Canadian racing driver whose IndyCar career ran from 2011 until 2021. He won the 2011 Rookie of the Year title and five races, then took pole for the 2016 Indianapolis 500 after a near-fatal 2015 crash. He now works as a commentator for NBC Sports and Fox.
James Hinchcliffe is a Canadian racer who competed in IndyCar from 2011 until 2021 and has since become one of the sport's best-known voices on air. Early wins in junior series led to Indy Lights and then IndyCar, where he won pole for the 2016 Indianapolis 500 a year after a near-fatal crash. He now commentates for NBC Sports and Fox.
How did James Hinchcliffe get into racing?
Hinchcliffe started karting after a go-kart arrived for his ninth birthday. He took third in the Bridgestone Racing Academy F2000 series in 2003 and claimed the rookie crown in Formula BMW USA a year later. By 2006 he was racing in Champ Car Atlantic with Forsythe Racing.
He was born in North York, Ontario, and grew up in Oakville. His earliest trackside memory is of an IndyCar race he watched with his father at 18 months old. Television also played a part: he watched Jacques Villeneuve win the Indianapolis 500 in 1995 and decided he wanted to race.
Formula BMW USA brought him three race wins. In 2005 the Star Mazda Series gave him a third-place championship finish and three more victories. The 2006 Champ Car Atlantic season with Forsythe produced a win at Portland, two other podiums and a tenth-place points finish.
Commentary began early for him. He worked on Eurosport's Champ Car coverage in 2006 and 2007, and that experience in the broadcast booth would later grow into a second career.
A near-fatal crash, a pole position a year later and a second career in the commentary booth.
What happened in his first IndyCar seasons?
Hinchcliffe joined Newman/Haas Racing in April 2011 and took fourth at Long Beach in only his second start. He crashed out of the Indianapolis 500 and finished 29th. The season ended in tragedy at Las Vegas, and he was named Rookie of the Year once the points were reset.
His first race for the team was at Barber Motorsports Park, where he retired after contact with a spinning E. J. Viso. The Indianapolis 500 that year saw him start 13th, run up front for a while, then crash out on lap 101.
The Las Vegas finale ended in disaster. Early in the race Hinchcliffe made contact with Wade Cunningham, which set off a chain reaction that resulted in the death of Dan Wheldon, and the event was abandoned. The points were reset to the standings as they stood at Kentucky, which gave Hinchcliffe the Rookie of the Year title ahead of J. R. Hildebrand of Panther Racing.
When the season finished, Newman/Haas was not coming back to IndyCar. Hinchcliffe found himself without a seat and became a free agent.
How did his time with Andretti Autosport begin?
In January 2012 Hinchcliffe took over the GoDaddy car at Andretti Autosport from Danica Patrick. He qualified second for the 2012 Indianapolis 500 and finished sixth. A year later he won the season opener at St. Petersburg, his first IndyCar victory.
The car was renumbered No. 27, a number once carried by Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve, both Canadian. At the 2012 race he carried gloves that belonged to the late Greg Moore, a driver he considers the main reason he got into racing.
On race day he passed pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe on the opening lap, led five of the 200 laps and took sixth. In 2013 he won the Sao Paulo Indy 300 with a last-turn pass on Takuma Sato, which ended a winning run by Will Power.
A concussion followed in 2014. Debris from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis left him with a head injury, and a CT scan confirmed it. He was cleared to race again on 15 May, five days after the incident.
Where did his IndyCar results come from, team by team?
Hinchcliffe's IndyCar career passed through three teams, with a return to Andretti for the last two years. Three of his five IndyCar wins came with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and the other two came at Andretti Autosport in 2013. The table below sets out each stint with its most significant results.
| Team | Years | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Newman/Haas Racing | 2011 | Rookie of the Year; fourth at Long Beach |
| Andretti Autosport | 2012 to 2014 | Sixth at the 2012 Indianapolis 500; St. Petersburg and Sao Paulo wins in 2013 |
| Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 2015 to 2019 | New Orleans win in 2015; Long Beach win in 2017; Iowa win in 2018 |
| Andretti Autosport | 2020 to 2021 | Seventh at the 2020 Indianapolis 500; third at the Music City Grand Prix |
What happened in the 2015 Indianapolis crash?
During practice for the 2015 Indianapolis 500, a suspension failure sent Hinchcliffe's car into the wall. A suspension piece entered the cockpit and punctured his thigh, causing heavy bleeding. The quick response of IndyCar safety crews is credited with saving his life.
The right side of the car came apart, and he was pinned in the cockpit while the damage was dealt with. He was taken to Methodist Hospital, where surgeons removed debris from his thigh. He stayed in hospital during the race, and Ryan Briscoe took his place in the car.
Briscoe and Conor Daly drove the car for the rest of the 2015 season. Hinchcliffe, meanwhile, was back in the car for 2016.
On 22 May 2016, a year after the crash, he took pole for the race's 100th edition and went on to finish seventh. Later that year he led much of the Firestone 600 before losing a photo finish to Graham Rahal for second.
How did his time at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports end?
Hinchcliffe won at New Orleans in 2015, at Long Beach in 2017 and at Iowa in 2018. He failed to qualify for the 2018 Indianapolis 500 on Bump Day, his first time missing the race. Arrow McLaren SP released him from driving duties in October 2019.
Leena Gade became his lead race engineer for 2018 and was the first woman to hold that role in IndyCar history. After the Bump Day failure, Gade and the team parted ways.
He bounced back in July 2018 with a win at Iowa, and in 2019 he finished third at the same track. The team had been renamed Arrow McLaren SP by then, and it signed Oliver Askew and Pato O'Ward for the two seats.
Hinchcliffe stayed under contract for a time, attending race weekends and sponsor events, but he was free to explore other opportunities.
Did Hinchcliffe return to full-time racing?
Yes, briefly. Andretti Autosport signed him for three races in 2020, and in 2021 he raced full-time in the No. 29 car, finishing twentieth in the points. On 12 December 2021 he stepped down from full-time racing to join NBC Sports as a commentator.
Three events were on that list: the GMR Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and the Genesys 600. He finished eighteenth at Texas Motor Speedway, eleventh at the Indy Grand Prix and seventh at Indianapolis. He then replaced Zach Veach for the final three races, driving the No. 26 car.
In January 2021 Andretti said he would drive the No. 29 car for the whole season, co-entered with Steinbrenner Racing. His best finish of the year was a podium at the new Music City street race, where he took third.
What is his broadcasting career?
Hinchcliffe joined NBC Sports as an IndyCar analyst in 2020 and became a full-time analyst in 2022. From 2025 he has been one of the main commentators on Fox's IndyCar coverage, and he also calls select Formula 1 races for F1TV.
Earlier, in 2010, he filled in as a driver analyst for the speedway's radio network during the 500, covering for Davey Hamilton, who was racing that day. In 2022 he worked alongside Leigh Diffey, the play-by-play voice, and Townsend Bell, the analyst, taking the seat once held by Paul Tracy. That October he appeared on F1's Weekend Warmup for the United States and Mexico City races, and in 2023 he became an occasional co-commentator for Channel 4's Formula 1 coverage in Britain.
Television work took him beyond motorsport as well. He was a celebrity contestant on season 23 of Dancing with the Stars in 2016, partnered with Sharna Burgess. He also appeared on Celebrity Family Feud that August, competing against swimsuit models.
Podcasts were another outlet. The Mayor on Air ran from 2015 through 2017 and usually featured IndyCar drivers. He now co-hosts Off Track with Hinch and Rossi alongside fellow driver Alexander Rossi.
He has also worked as an analyst for select IMSA races, especially in years when he was not entered as a driver. That role began in 2020, when he joined NBC Sports for IndyCar races and some IMSA events.
Is James Hinchcliffe racing in NASCAR?
Yes, in a limited way. An announcement on 12 February 2026 confirmed a Truck Series start at St. Petersburg, in the No. 77 Chevrolet run by Spire Motorsports. The move follows a career that began in karts and moved through open-wheel racing.
The announcement came more than four years after he stepped away from full-time racing. It gives him a return to the driver's seat in a new series rather than a commentary role alone.
Honours and nicknames
The Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame welcomed him on 17 February 2024, making him its youngest member at 37. Fans call him Hinch, and he is often known as the Mayor of Hinchtown. He is also a partner in Frost Marks Films, a production company based in Toronto.
His media work has given him a public profile far beyond the racetrack.
_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}