Andretti Autosport, Part I
The cast: Drivers – James Hinchcliffe and Carlos Munoz. Part II will be Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Chief engineers – Nathan O’Rourke (Hinchcliffe) and Garrett Mothersead (Munoz).
Twitter: @Hinchtown, @CarlosMunoz, @FollowAndretti
The cars: Honda-powered No. 27 (Hinchcliffe) and No. 34 (Munoz)
Snapshot: After two seasons with Chevrolet power, Andretti Autosport moves back to the Honda 2.2-liter, twin turbo V-6 engine for 2014. … Hinchcliffe (right), the mayor of his Internet domain “Hinchtown,” had a breakout 2013 season with three victories and placed eighth in the IndyCar Series championship. That initial victory, he said, “was kind of proof that the class clown could still be serious when he needed to.” … O’Rourke, formerly of Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, moves in as Hinchcliffe’s engineer as Craig Hampson has moved to an R&D role with the team. … The primary sponsor of Hinchcliffe’s car will be United Fiber & Data, a technology company founded by three members of the rock band LIVE. … Munoz, of Colombia, who turned 22 on Jan. 2, made a striking IndyCar Series debut in 2013 by qualifying and finishing second in the 97th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. He also competed in two other races as a replacement driver (one each for Panther Racing and Andretti Autosport). Munoz placed third in the Indy Lights championship for Andretti Autosport, garnering four victories and five Sunoco Pole Awards. … Munoz’s car will carry a new team primary sponsor in Cinsay, a Texas-based company that is a leader in social video commerce technology. The car number is in honor of Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, whose 34 Solutions company he co-chairs is the licensed retailer of Cinsay Smart Store technology. … Munoz’s program is a joint effort between Andretti Autosport and HVM Racing.
The stats: Hinchcliffe earned his first IndyCar Series victory in the 2013 season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., and followed a month later with a win in Brazil. His third win of the season came in mid-June on the Iowa Speedway short oval. … Overall, Hinchcliffe posted 11 top-10 finishes, including closing with third- and fourth-place efforts on the Houston street circuit and the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway oval. … He led five races for a total of 264 laps (226 laps led at Iowa), and was running at the finish in 15 of the 19 races. … Hinchcliffe had a streak on the midseason ovals in which he started second, third and third. He had an average starting position of 9.1, qualifying for the Firestone Fast Six twice in 13 races. … Munoz won four Indy Lights races (two on ovals, one each on a road and street course) to boost his two-year total to six. He finished in the top five in eight of the 12 races and paced all drivers with 198 laps led. … Also was series’ Sunoco Pole Award leader with five, including the first three races of the 2013 season. … He qualified eighth at Toronto in his second IndyCar Series race and qualified 14th at Auto Club Speedway.
The gist: Hinchcliffe enters his third season driving for Andretti Autosport as a teammate to Munoz, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay. He competed in 16 of the 17 races in 2011 (missing the St. Petersburg opener) for Newman/Haas Racing, earning the Sunoco Rookie of the Year and Tony Renna Rising Star awards after recording seven top-10 finishes with best of fourth (at Long Beach in second IndyCar Series race, New Hampshire and Kentucky). … Hinchcliffe, 27, of Toronto, recently partnered with Honda Canada to promote its products across his native land. … Munoz was voted the Rising Star award winner by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association.
They said it: “Last year we had the pace early but not the consistency,” Hinchcliffe said. “If you look at the second half of the year, we were actually way more consistent than people realize. At the end of the year we had that good, never-give-up attitude, pulled some decent results out of some bad situations. We didn’t have the overall pace at that point of the year. So I think we actually ended the year on more of a high than people realized, which is fine. As long as we know it, what we were doing to get that, that could put us in a good position for this year."
Added Munoz: “(The Indianapolis 500) gave me the opportunity to be here for a full season. It was an awesome race. I didn’t cross the finish line first, so I never will know what would happen without the yellow flag. That was 2013. Now is 2014. I have another chance to go get that race. I’m focused on this year.”