In Driver’s Eye with James Hinchcliffe, the six-time INDYCAR winner will bring you inside the mind of a racer while breaking down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans.
I crashed the most expensive car I had ever driven. Well, the most expensive at the time.
This was in 2011 at Barber Motorsports Park, where INDYCAR is racing Sunday (1 p.m. ET on FOX and FOX One). It’s also where I made my career debut. The course is hugely physical and punishing for a driver at any level — both 15 years ago and for drivers this weekend — but more on that later.
Back then, I was a 24-year-old rookie for Newman-Haas Racing, and after two seasons in Indy Lights — the developmental series now known as Indy NXT — I was ready.
Or so I thought.
James Hinchcliffe at Barber Motorsports Park in 2011 in Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
Coming off just one prior test at Barber and the weekend’s practice sessions, I was feeling what every INDYCAR rookie feels before their first start: a combination of excitement, anticipation and being moderately terrified.
I was nervous from the beginning, but the imposter syndrome really kicked in before the green flag when officials began clearing the grid of anyone who wasn’t a team member. For two years as an Indy Lights driver, I would go on every INDYCAR grid and leave with everyone else when it was time.
The butterflies were abundant, and finally getting to remain on the grid was surreal.
I qualified eighth, which is pretty strong for a guy making his first INDYCAR start. Beside me on the grid was Dario Franchitti, who, at that point, was already a three-time INDYCAR champion and a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. (He ultimately won each one more time.)
Starting alongside one of the legends of the sport — a guy who I had looked up to for such a long time — and to be that far up the grid, I felt like I didn’t belong. And I hoped I wouldn’t make a fool of myself.
Thankfully, I didn’t. But my day ended in heartbreak when I got caught up in someone else’s wreck.
On a Lap 41 restart, a driver in front of me heading into the big brake zone in Turn 5 suffered some contact and spun. Now, the first lesson they teach you in racing school is if you’re spinning out, put both feet to the floor, pressing the brakes and the clutch — yes, Indy cars had three pedals back then!
Well, this guy was clearly napping on Day 1 of racing school, because as I took evasive action and swerved around his car, he released the brake pedal and his car rolled back into mine and cleared out the left-rear corner.
You only get one shot at your first race, and mine ended in smoke.
E.J. Viso and James Hinchcliffe wreck at Barber in 2011. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
I hated damaging that car. But that’s motorsports, that’s racing at Barber, and this course can get the best of the greatest racers.
If I could go back and talk to my 2011 INDYCAR rookie self with all the knowledge and experience I possess now, I’d tell myself to just breathe. Just stay calm.
[INDYCAR: Everything to Know About Eclectic Barber Track]
And I’d most likely relay what Franchitti truly stated to me a pair weeks after that Barber debut. He checked in to see how I used to be doing and supplied sage phrases that caught with me.
You spend your complete life making an attempt to get to this degree, and you then get right here, and also you understand you’re racing towards the identical boneheads you’ve been competing towards since go-karts, he identified to me. It shifted my complete perspective and drained my imposter syndrome.
In INDYCAR, we accomplish distinctive feats on the quickest speeds in a number of the costliest vehicles on the planet. However we’re all simply folks, and anybody is beatable — should you apply your self and relentlessly work. Franchitti jogged my memory that nobody is invincible, and each driver on the market has needed to claw their approach into the game like everybody else earlier than them.
You’re right here for a purpose, simply as they’re, he jogged my memory, so act such as you belong, imagine that you simply belong and simply go race these guys such as you’ve raced anybody else.
So I did. And that’s how drivers now method sharing the monitor with INDYCAR champs like Alex Palou, Scott Dixon and Will Power — who gained that 2011 race and could very well win again on Sunday.
HIGH-SPEED PARITY
With how this season began, we might see 4 winners within the first 4 races.
Within the first three, followers had been handled to some unbelievable on-track battles, three totally different winners from three totally different groups and, for the primary time in additional than 620 days, a brand new championship chief.
Let’s break it down forward of Barber on Sunday.
Palou has been the dominant pressure in INDYCAR within the final half-decade, incomes 4 titles within the final 5 years. And he picked up proper the place he left off with Chip Ganassi Racing, successful the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. However an uncharacteristic DNF (didn’t end) for the almost-29-year-old Spaniard on the brief oval at Phoenix Raceway in Week 2 dropped him from the highest for the primary time in almost two years.
Group Penske’s Josef Newgarden won Phoenix, whereas Andretti International’s Kyle Kirkwood landed atop the rostrum with a win at the all-new hallmark event round AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — and within the championship race lead.
So, who seems poised to make a mark at Barber this weekend?
Palou, second within the factors, is the defending race winner. His document on street programs is, by far, one of the best of all the varied INDYCAR tracks.
However you possibly can’t rely out the trio behind him.
Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Newgarden and Group Penske’s Scott McLaughlin sit third by means of fifth within the title race and beforehand have all stood on the prime of the rostrum at Barber.
Scott McLaughlin celebrates after successful the 2023 INDYCAR Youngsters’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber. (Picture by Chris McDill/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)
Of that group, you would need to say that McLaughlin is the favourite — regardless of crashing Saturday during practice and going to a backup automotive. He is gained two of the final three races at Barber and was on the rostrum within the third. However he is additionally coming off a winless 2025 and desperately desires to say himself within the championship dialogue.
With all of the top-5 drivers in peak type and able to getting it completed this weekend, we might very nicely be wanting on the fourth totally different winner — and factors chief — in as many races.
[INDYCAR: Rotating Points Leaders and More Parity Before Barber]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FAST: BARBER
So, let’s discuss Barber Motorsports Park.
It’s a 2.3-mile, 17-turn street course by means of the hilly outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. The course was initially designed as a motorbike monitor, however in 15 INDYCAR races there since 2010, we now have had some unbelievable on-track battles.
The INDYCAR discipline through the 2024 Youngsters’s of Alabama INDY Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park. (Picture by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)
The landscaping could also be scenic, however it’s the asphalt that makes this place so particular. It is comprised of many lengthy, quick corners that basically push the aerodynamic limits of an Indy automotive — and the drivers’ necks! To not point out big elevation adjustments and blind corners that problem the drivers’ bravery and dedication.
Due to the velocity and size of the corners, the bodily forces utilized to the drivers’ our bodies are intense. Seventy laps round Barber is like flying a fighter jet round an impediment course for 2 straight hours.
You possibly can prepare all you need within the gymnasium within the offseason, however if you get to a monitor like this, particularly so early within the season, it may be a really punishing, bodily occasion.
SOUND LIKE AN INDYCAR EXPERT
For me, Barber holds the good nook combo of all the INDYCAR season.
On the finish of the again straightaway are Turns 12 and 13, which you method on the prime of sixth gear, virtually 180 miles an hour. You elevate simply earlier than the flip — however solely sufficient to permit the engine to allow you to knock it down one gear earlier than getting again on the facility for a fast burst. The entry is downhill and blind.
Pato O’Ward heads into Flip 12 through the 2022 INDY Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. (Picture by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)
On the exit, you instantly faucet the brakes once more to speed-correct for Flip 13, which angles extraordinarily uphill and means the exit is completely blind. The automotive will get tremendous gentle on the exit because the monitor drops again away, and it’s really easy to misjudge your throttle level.
It is as a lot enjoyable as you possibly can have in a race automotive!
With this being the primary true street course of the 12 months after two road tracks and an oval — it additionally occurs to be probably the most bodily — drivers wanted to regulate their coaching within the off-week after Arlington.
An enormous emphasis on neck, upper-body and core energy doubtless made their approach into drivers’ coaching applications to make sure they aren’t falling out of the seat late within the race.
Typically you possibly can see a lap time drop off within the last stint for sure drivers, and it’s not the automotive…
Alex Palou and staff proprietor Chip Ganassi have fun successful the 2025 Youngsters’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park. (Picture by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)
1 FOR THE ROAD
Lastly, I’d be remiss to not point out this would be the first race held at Barber’s stunning facility for the reason that passing of its creator, Mr. George Barber, in February. He was 85.
Barber — a businessman, philanthropist and racer himself — constructed this place as his personal private race monitor and even constructed a museum to deal with his record-setting bike and automotive assortment.
His consideration to element and dedication to perfection are evident in all the things you see and contact at Barber Motorsports Park.
It’s nicknamed the Augusta National of Motorsports, and such is the standard of presentation every time we present up. His contribution to this sport and the realm merely can’t be overstated.
Whereas it’ll actually really feel totally different with out Mr. Barber available this weekend, having labored intently with a lot of those that have skilled and labored with him through the years, I’ve little doubt in any respect the trademark Barber look, really feel and friendliness will keep on for years to return.
Right here’s hoping to an awesome weekend for his legacy.
Catch you on the INDYCAR on FOX Barber broadcast Sunday!
