Why INDYCAR at Barber Punishes Drivers and Tests Their Bravery
📖 Full Retelling
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. 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
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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. 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
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