Hinchcliffe not pursuing any more Indy 500 options

James Hinchcliffe is no longer looking for a way to get into the Indianapolis 500.

The Canadian driver used a Twitter post Wednesday to announce that, “barring unforeseen circumstances,” he would not start Sunday’s race and a decision had been made to stop “pursuing other options” after he failed to make the 33-car field during qualifying last weekend.

“There aren’t really words to describe how missing this race feels,” he wrote. “No excuses. This is our reality and we will face it head on.”

Missing Indy Car’s showcase race, worth double points, likely takes Hinchcliffe out of the series championship hunt. He is currently fifth in the points standings.

It appears the only way Hinchcliffe could race now would be in the event a driver is injured during Friday’s final practice session and wasn’t cleared to drive in time for race day. Even then, it could be tough because he is the face of a national advertising campaign for Honda — eliminating the possibility he could drive a Chevrolet-powered car. The Honda spots featuring Hinchcliffe are expected to run throughout the race and the primary sponsor of Hinchcliffe’s No. 5 car, Arrow Electronics, has its name on temporary suites set up in the first turn at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The other driver who failed to make the field, Pippa Mann, was not expected to find a way into the race. But many figured Hinchcliffe, one of the series’ most popular regulars, would find another ride at the expense of a less experienced driver. Speculation centered primarily on his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammates: Jay Howard, an Indy 500only driver, and rookie Robert Wickens, who crashed in Monday’s practice. Instead of putting Hinchcliffe into one of those cars, team owner Sam Schmidt got Hinchcliffe’s sponsors to approve using their logos on the other cars in the team’s stable.

When race purists celebrated the return of bumping during qualifying, nobody expected Hinchcliffe to be in this position. But rain, bad timing and bad luck was too much to overcome. His slower than expected fourlap qualifying average on the first attempt following a 2-hour, 20-minute rain delay Saturday was the only official attempt he made.

Four of his six Indy starts have come from the first three rows including the No. 1 spot in 2016. But he has had only two top-10 finishes on the speedway’s 2.5-mile oval .

NASCAR Hall of Fame: Jeff Gordon was selected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday. A four-time Cup Series champion who helped take stock car racing from a regional sport to the mainstream in the 1990s, Gordon received 96 percent of the votes from the Hall of Fame committee. He’s third in Cup history with 93 victories.

Car owners Jack Roush and Roger Penske also were selected to the Hall of Fame. They will be joined by drivers Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison, who won 19 Cup races, including the 1992 Daytona 500. Both died in 1993 — Kulwicki at age 38 in a plane crash and Allison three months later in a helicopter crash at 32.

Jim Hunter was selected as the Landmark Award winner.