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| Despite two podium finishes, J.R. Hildebrand finds himself out of a ride again |
After three-plus years away from full-time IndyCar competition, Hildebrand returned to competition in the #21 Chevrolet, an entire team in transition from the Josef Newgarden-era. He had a respectable season opener at St. Petersburg going from 19th and 13th. He had a tough weekend at Long Beach but was in position for a top ten finish when starting the final lap. That was ruined when Mikhail Aleshin hit him from behind and not only cost Hildebrand a top ten but broke the American's wrist and sidelined him for Barber.
Hildebrand returned for Phoenix and went toe-to-toe with the four Team Penske entries. He qualified third and stayed at the front the entire race but he couldn't best the juggernaut of Simon Pagenaud and Will Power and he had to settle for third. He was not able to carry over that competitive pace to the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and finished 14th but Ed Carpenter Racing was the best of the Chevrolet teams in Indianapolis 500 qualifying and Hildebrand started sixth, the second-best Chevrolet on the grid. In the race, Hildebrand ran in or around the top ten all race and he was in contention for a top five until he got penalized for jumping the restart with nine laps to go, dropping him from a top finish to 16th.
The next race at Belle Isle saw another late penalty; this one with 15 laps to go for an improper pit exit cost him a shot at another top ten finish. He tried a three-stop strategy in the second Belle Isle race but contact with Ed Jones ended any hope of that producing a result for the American. Hildebrand worked his way into the top ten at Texas and was then caught up in the lap 152 accident but the team repaired his car and the extra laps he ran got him up to 12th in the final results. Road America was another 16th place finish.
Hildebrand had Iowa in his hands until he was balked in traffic late and it allowed Hélio Castroneves to go by and he had to settle for second. He had another unenthusiastic 13th at Toronto and he was the only driver caught out by the only caution at Mid-Ohio and that cost him a shot at a top ten finish. Contact with James Hinchcliffe killed his day at Pocono and he spun on his own at Gateway. Pit strategy and a caution went his way early at Watkins Glen and then the strategy went against him and he dropped to 15th. He closed his season with a 14th at Sonoma.
J.R. Hildebrand's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 15th (347 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 2
Top Fives: 2
Top Tens: 2
Laps Led: 42
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 1
Average Start: 15.25
Average Finish: 13.625
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| Ed Carpenter Racing may have found its new star in Spencer Pigot |
In his second year of part-time IndyCar competition, Pigot had plenty of promising races but some results didn't match what he did on the racetrack. He started 13th and was in the top ten early in the St. Petersburg race after passing the likes of Simon Pagenaud, Tony Kanaan and Alexander Rossi to get there and then he had the brakes explode on him while entering his pit box for his first stop of the day. He turned a two-stop strategy into an eighth place finish at Long Beach, with some help from four retirements from Andretti Autosport. At Barber, Pigot had another top ten run going until he spun exiting turn five while in eighth place.
He was back on track for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he got up to sixth place from 16th on the grid at the end of the first stint but he stalled in the pit lane and fell back to 15th. He rallied and finished ninth ahead of the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya and former teammate Josef Newgarden. He made his second Indianapolis 500 start with Juncos Racing, starting 29th but he was off the pace all race and struggled to finish 18th, six laps down. Pigot went from 17th to tenth in the first Belle Isle race and never got higher than 15th in race two where his engine expire with five laps to go.
He had a quiet 12th-place finish at Road America followed by a terrific opening stint at Toronto where he went from 13th to fifth with more audacious moves on Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Unfortunately, Pigot got caught out by the Kanaan caution and he had to make an unscheduled pit stop after contact with Takuma Sato later in the race. A hard accident in the morning warm-up derailed his day at Mid-Ohio and he couldn't do any better than 19th. He led his first career laps at Watkins Glen after having a caution fall his way but an early pit stop knocked him out of contention for a top ten to 12th and an early pit stop put him at the back in Sonoma but he finished 13th.
Spencer Pigot's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 20th (218 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 3
Laps Led: 8
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 0
Average Start: 17.0833
Average Finish: 15.0
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| It wasn't a bad year for Ed Carpenter but it could have been better |
Carpenter returned for another year of oval-only appearances and it appeared it would not start well as he had to start 21st at Phoenix. The good news for Carpenter was five cars were taken out in the first turn and the superior Chevrolet high downforce aero kit got him up to seventh, albeit it two laps down. The good run continued at the Indianapolis 500 where he was the fastest Chevrolet and was the only Chevrolet in contention for pole position but he had to settle for second on the grid. In the race, Carpenter ran respectively in the race but front wing damaged forced him to make an extra pit stop and he had to settle for an 11th place finish.
Carpenter was a part of the third of the field taken out in the lap 152 accident at Texas but he was able to get repairs and run enough laps to get another 11th place finish. He was fighting in and around the top five for most of the day at Iowa but he fell off a cliff in the final third in the race and finished 12th. He had another 12th-place finish at Pocono and he had nowhere to go when Will Power spun in turn two at Gateway and Carpenter hopped over the Australian and ended the season with a 21st-place finish.
Ed Carpenter's 2017 Statistics
Championship Positions: 22th (169 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1
Laps Led: 5
Poles: 0
Average Start: 11.333
Average Finish: 12.333
The first year post-Josef Newgarden was a step back and I think everyone should have expected that. The team had a great talent that had half a decade to develop and he had developed a relationship with his engineer Jeremy Milless. Both left and it was going to be difficult to match their results.
With that said, I think you have to be a little bit disappointed in Hildebrand. He had two podium finishes on short ovals and one race he very well should have won but outside of those two races the results weren't there. He did have a few races taken from him. He was kind of screwed at the Indianapolis 500 and if he had finished fifth or sixth in that race, thanks to double points, he might be a position or two higher in the championship but that still would have been only three top ten finishes this season.
Pigot is knocking on the door and he deserves a full-time seat. He had some of the most impressive races this year. He made passes that most drivers would never dare to try and he didn't tear up equipment. What saves Hildebrand somewhat is Pigot too struggled in qualifying for road and street course races so it appears to be more of a team-wide issue than one driver.
Carpenter had a respectable year and other than Iowa, the poor results seem to have come from things mostly out of his control. The team has made the decision to promote Pigot to the #21 Chevrolet full-time and you can't fault the team for doing that. Pigot is ready for full-time competition and if ECR didn't sign him now he would likely go elsewhere and find success. While Pigot deserves to be full-time, Hildebrand should probably have gotten another year. This was a rebuilding year for the team but he is back to unemployment and wondering where else he can turn.
The team has to fill the #20 Chevrolet and there are three paths for the team: Sign an IndyCar veteran, sign an unknown driver from Europe or sign an Indy Lights driver. The team reportedly was interested in Sage Karam but I can't imagine Karam would want to take over the road/street course portion of the season for the #20 Chevrolet. If Karam is coming back to IndyCar he is going to want to be full-time and if Karam does take the road/street course races in the #20 Chevrolet, he better have ECR field a car for him in the Indianapolis 500.
Kyle Kaiser won the Indy Lights championship and while he has the three-race scholarship I think he would want more than the road/street course portion of the season and I think he wants to move up with Juncos Racing. Santiago Urrutia is another Indy Lights driver ready for IndyCar but he is a development driver for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and he also likely wants to be full-time.
The one driver I think could be a great road/street course driver for ECR is Hélio Castroneves and ECR could get Castroneves the best of both worlds. There doesn't appear to be any conflicts between the IMSA schedule and any road or street course races for IndyCar but we will have to wait and see if Mexico City is added and where it falls on the schedule. Castroneves could run the entire IMSA schedule, the 11 or 12 IndyCar road/street course races and the Indianapolis 500. Castroneves would get to run a fair amount of IndyCar races, he would still get to drive for Team Penske in the Indianapolis 500 and Roger Penske would be able to let Castroneves get his fill of IndyCar and Ed Carpenter would get a top driver who can compete at the front in road and street course races. It would be a win-win-win but as great as it sounds on paper it probably won't happen.
I am firmly in the boat Ed Carpenter Racing should field two full-time cars for two full-time championship contending drivers and Carpenter himself should either run only the Indianapolis 500 or run all the ovals in a third car. We might be closer to that day then we think when considering how many quality drivers are out there.
