Hinchcliffe, Schmidt maintain perspective
Missing Indy field not the worst thing that could happen
Henderson car owner Sam Schmidt and his No. 1 driver, James Hinchcliffe of Canada, again became a major story of Indianapolis 500 qualifications weekend.
For the second time, it wasn’t in the way either had hoped.
Hinchcliffe was expected to be among the contenders in Sunday’s 102nd running of the race. But he won’t be competing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after his qualifying speed did not hold up and he was bumped from the 33-car field.
As devastating as that seemed and may still seem, it was a minor hiccup compared to a practice crash at the peril-fraught Brickyard in 2015 that almost ended Hinchcliffe’s life.
He made a triumphant return the following year, qualifying Schmidt’s car on the pole position before finishing seventh in the 100th running of the iconic race.
“This track, believe it or not, has done worse to me in the past and we came back swinging, so we’ll be fine,” said the charismatic Hinchcliffe, a former runner-up in ABC’S “Dancing with the Stars.”
Car owner Schmidt offered a similar perspective.
“After such a good start to the season, this is a pretty big (disappointment), but it’s not the worst thing in life,” said Schmidt, who was rendered a quadriplegic as a result of an Indycar testing crash in 2000.