BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Considering the uncertainty of rain that wasn’t sure it wanted to be actual rain, then became actual rain and then wasn’t sure again, a third-fourth effort by two teammates proved satisfactory.
James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens began their adventure Monday in fifth and seventh, respectively, as the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by America’s First resumed after Sunday's postponement because of rain. The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports duo finished third and fourth, respectively, after battling weather that never seemed to know what it wanted to do.
“It was all kind of guesswork,” Hinchcliffe said after finishing third in the No. 5 Arrow Electronics SPM Honda. “Everybody kind of just took their best stab at it. Our predictions had rain at the beginning and dry at the end. When it started dry, we're like, ‘Oh, we're dry for the whole race. We're good.’ We didn't really have anything prepared on the car for any wet running.
“But that's the risk you take, and that's the kind of game of roulette you play with Mother Nature every weekend. We did an all-right job as a team, and (I'm) proud of that. “
Once it began to sprinkle, the radio traffic for both SPM drivers was similar to other drivers in the race: Should we pit for rain tires? For Wickens, though, the rain was a great equalizer.
"I was having to save a lot of fuel in that second stint, so once (Scott) Dixon started getting close to me, I was thinking I might have to give this position up,” Wickens said. “Then the rain came, so the fuel mileage kind of happened naturally. The rain saved us a bit.”
Hinchcliffe described his radio conversation with his crew like this:
“We were driving around out there, and it’s like, 'Right, guys, it’s getting wetter. It’s getting wetter. ... Wet enough for rains? Nah, not wet enough for rains. ... Wet enough for rains? Nah. ... Pit for rains. Are you guys sure?’”
Wickens pitted for rain tires from fourth place in the No. 6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda on Lap 74 – just eight laps from the finish – and emerged in ninth place. He raced back to fourth and maintained his place in the top 10 of the Verizon IndyCar Series standings.
“I was a little gutted that we came out into a big bunch of traffic, but it made the race fun,” Wickens said. “It was also a little bit frustrating as we lost a bit of track position there, and I think we could have both been fighting for higher steps on the podium today.”
After four of 17 races, Hinchcliffe is fifth in the standings, 40 points behind leader Josef Newgarden. Wickens is eighth, 61 points out of the lead, but atop the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings.
The next Verizon IndyCar Series race is the INDYCAR Grand Prix from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, May 12 (3:30 p.m. ET). It is followed by the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on Sunday, May 27 (11 a.m. ET). Both races air live on ABC and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.