J.R. Hildebrand: Could Have Been A Champ

It would seem strange that I would talk about IndyCar racing at all on this blog at all.  I am somewhat of a purist when it comes to racing cars.  If you are going to race a car you should race an actual car. Not some fighter jet with wheels.  However, I found myself with nothing to do on Sunday afternoon so I watched some of the Indianapolis 500.  I had watched it in years past when people like Dario Francitti and Scott Dixon would have the field covered by 10 seconds.  I calusly assumed that this one would be similar.  I turned on the TV to find that It was half way through and to no surprise the Chip Ganassi owned duo mentioned above were indeed leading the race at this point.  Roger Penske’s guys were not doing very well at all which was shocking.  (His NASCAR guys did much better that night)  However, the next caution would change everything.  Alex Tagliani wrecked, much harder than I ever anticipated.  It was intense, half of his car was destroyed and he still walked away, which was a very good thing.  From then on it was intense.  No more big leads held by anyone for any period of time.  IndyCar stars like Danica Patrick, Graham Rahal and some guy named Baguette got their chances up front for a bit.

Then the subject of this post makes his apperance.  J.R. Hildebrand, a rookie of the series, had been saving fuel during the beginning of the final run while everyone else was going at it.  With the rest of the field…aside from Dan Wheldon…starving for fuel JR was able to make his move and lead the field with Wheldon conserving fuel in second place.  The white flag waves and it is the last lap of the race.  Hildebrand is 4 corners away from winning the 100th running of the Great American Race, The Indy 500.  You’d be excited too if you were in this situation.  He got a little excited and wrecked on the final turn.  Everyone is in shock.  He had it in the bag and lost it that quickly.  A shocked Dan Wheldon cruises to victory!  I did not see that coming, but I was happy that Dan Wheldon won, since he was no longer a full time driver, maybe with this win he could become one again and restart his career.

J.R. Hildebrand has etched himself in history as the guy who almost won the hundredth running of the Indianapolis 500.  Maybe with a little luck he will win it sometime in the future.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EGq_yKp2-A

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