JR Hildebrand is set to run multiple races for AJ Foyt Racing, including next weekend at Texas (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment).
Long-time Indianapolis 500 veteran racer J.R. Hildebrand will be around the NTT IndyCar Series for more than just the Month of May this season. A.J. Foyt Racing announced Friday that he’ll pilot the No. 11 ROKiT Chevrolet in all five oval races, beginning next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
“For me, that’s exciting to be doing more of the races on the schedule. I really like the oval schedule that the series has right now,” said Hildebrand during Friday morning’s Zoom call.
“It’s such a mixed bag of different even like oval racing disciplines. Texas is totally different, we don’t go to any other mile-and-a-halfs now. It’s a hard place. Iowa, a place that I’ve had a lot of success at in the past and always enjoyed, that’s been a track that for me I’ve just known what I needed there from the race car from the first time I rolled up, and more often than not have been able to find it with the teams.
“Gateway, too, I think the awesome thing about INDYCAR racing generally right now, but particularly the oval racing, is that there’s nowhere that’s easy anymore. There’s no flat-out, you’re pinned for the entire race kind of places. You’ve really got to drive, you’ve got to work with the team to get the cars hooked up, and I’m looking forward to that challenge.”
The No. 11 machine is primarily driven by Tatiana Calderon, but will only run the road and street course races, allowing an opportunity for the Californian to run multiple INDYCAR races for the first time since 2017.
That year, Hildebrand drove for Ed Carpenter Racing in 16 of 17 races (missed Barber due to an injury) which also marked the last time he ran a full campaign. He only finished in the top-10 twice the entire season, but both stood out due to finishing on the podium at both Phoenix and Iowa.
In a time period when part-time drivers hope to make a limited schedule into an eventual full-time gig, Hildebrand’s approach is rather different. Hildebrand told The Podium Finish that he’s strictly focused on Texas.
“For me that’s certainly on behalf of the team, to take it to — to be able to take advantage of this opportunity and them choosing me to be the guy for this role,” Hildebrand responded.
“Honestly, it’s as much just for myself to go out there and continue to work on my craft. You have to kind of go out with the intention to execute in every little facet of what you do, whether it’s in-and-out laps in practice, I mean, every little thing.
“I think for me it’s one of the things that I’ve learned over the course of my career, that you can kind of attach yourself a little bit too much to results or even just goals from a performance perspective. At the end of the day, what really keeps you going and keeps you wanting to do this, and for me, it’s been — I’ve had like a revived feeling of that energy over the last few years because I’ve been able to change my mindset a little bit,” Hildebrand continued.
“As a driver, you do really know when you just get everything out of it, even in those little small micro experiences over the course of a weekend. Then you start to know if I just start stacking these little things up, kind of regardless of where I end up finishing because sometimes there’s aspects of that that are not in your control. Whether because strategy doesn’t work or we didn’t have the car that you needed to do this or that or whatever, that you can still come out the other side of those weekends feeling like you accomplished something, and then kind of know you have a more fundamental sense of where you can get better.
“That’s what I’m after in this is can we go to Texas, learn something, come out the other side of it feeling like we’re better for it, better for having been there that weekend. Hopefully feeling as a group that we executed when we had the chance when it mattered. Wherever we end up is where we end up. And at the end of the season however that manifests itself in terms of doing more or not or whatever, that to me is like a totally secondary concern,” Hildebrand concluded.
INDYCAR rookie Kyle Kirkwood discussing with his new teammate (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment).
Just last week in Fort Worth, Hildebrand shook down rookie Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 14 Chevrolet where he described that even running a few installation laps, it’s a valuable experience.
“When you’re going to do all the ovals or you’re going to do multiple races, there’s a lot of differences in terms of how you show up to run at Texas than you do on basically a two-day weekend, than you do to run at the Speedway,” Hildebrand explained.
“The things that matter are much more kind of specific. You don’t have time to run through a bunch of stuff. You’re not developing a multi-day-long program to figure out how to get the car sorted, to get comfortable, all that kind of stuff.
“Even just pushing to get in the car to help shakedown Kyle Kirkwood’s car last week was part of that. If I can get like five laps and do one in-and-out lap, that’s really helpful showing up at Texas because I’m not going to get 50 reps over the course of practice like you do at Indy.
“Just being a little bit more assertive, I think, in some of those situations, knowing that there’s a chance to be doing more racing, and I’m feeling ready to rock and roll.”
In four previous starts at Texas, Hildebrand’s best finish to date was fifth in 2012. To this day, he recalls that race being tough on the competitors as he was one of six drivers that completed all 228 laps.
“I think about that race at Texas a lot, though, because that was like one of those Texas races where five or six cars finished on the lead lap, I think. Like it was super hard,” Hildebrand reflected on the 2012 race.
“We were desperately trying to make sure that it wasn’t going to be a pack race, and it turned into a thousand percent the opposite of a pack race.
“I remember being crossed up and sideways coming off of Turn 4 a bunch of laps in a row and thinking that surely we were just going to be awful in that event and then kind of discovering that we were going to run in the top 5 at the end of it.”
Following Texas, Hildebrand will look to make his 12th straight Indy 500 start, the second with the Foyt camp. In last year’s 500, Hildebrand sported the legendary 1961 livery AJ Foyt won his first of four Indy 500s.
To add the icing on the cake, Hildebrand’s Chevrolet had the No. 1 plate, primarily reserved by the championship-winning team (Chip Ganassi during the 2021 season). After starting 22nd, the 34-year-old ran all 200 laps and crossed the line in 15th, the best among the Foyt drivers.
During the video conference, Hildebrand also confirmed that ABC Supply Company will be a part of the sponsorship efforts in the 106th Indianapolis 500 (Sunday, May 29 on NBC).
J.R. Hildebrand blistering around Turn 3 at Indianapolis last May (Photo: Luis Torres | TPF).
The remaining oval races Hildebrand will compete in are the much anticipated Hy-Vee doubleheader at Iowa Speedway (July 23-24) and World Wide Technology Raceway (August 20).
Qualifying coverage from Texas will begin streaming live Saturday, March 19 at 2:30 p.m. on Peacock. Race day coverage of the XPEL 375 begins Sunday, March 20 at 12:30 p.m. on NBC.
