James Hinchcliffe doesn't expect to be taking part in the 102nd Indianapolis 500 after failing to qualify on 'Bump Day'.
On a day filled with drama due to rain and mechanical issues with his No.5 Schmidt Peterson/Honda, the session ended with Hinchcliffe failing to register a time alongside Pippa Mann who also failed to make it into the final 33.
For the Indy 500, it is the car which qualifies for the race, not the driver. Should the Schmidt Peterson team and his sponsors be able to arrange for another driver to vacate their car before the race, Hinchcliffe could still be eligible to participate in the famous 500-mile race.
"There obviously has been a precedent in the past of people jumping into other cars,” Hinchcliffe told the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network, “but at the end of the day, man, a single one-race deal is occupied here by someone that worked their tail off all year long to get the sponsorship together, to get the team in line.
"This is their race, this is everything for them for the entire season. It’s hard to talk someone out of that."
"It’s not even my decision; I’ve got no say in it at this point. I do what I’m told. I certainly see both sides of the argument. At the end of the day, it is what it is. We didn’t get the job done (Saturday), so if that means we don’t get to race, so be it. That’s our bed that we’ve got to lie in.”
Despite not making the cut for the race, the Canadian is grateful for the levels of support he has had from across the world. After suffering injuries in a horrific crash in practice for the 2015 event, he feels lucky to not be in a worse situation.
With two races around the streets of Detroit coming straight after the Indy 500, Hinchcliffe is aiming to be fully focused on working hard to try and get back into the title hunt.
"That’s Indy, man,” he added. “That’s what it does and that’s how much we care about this race. That’s not just the drivers, it’s all the crews, it’s everybody that comes out here.”
"I’m one of the few that’s had that bad a day here, so I can kind of put it in perspective, yeah," he said. "I may not be in the 33 but I also wasn’t lying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of me and 10 doctors standing around trying to figure out how to save my life. Bad days could be worse days, certainly.
"I’ve had worse and we’ve come back from that, too. In a couple weeks’ time, there are 100 points on the table in Detroit. We’re already head down, focused on that, and in the meantime here cheering my teammates on."
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