Times wires
Sunday, May 29, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS — His first shot at winning the Indianapolis 500 gone with a last-lap miscue for the ages, JR Hildebrand sat at the podium and calmly explained how he threw away the biggest race of his life.
There were no tears. No sullen, mumbled answers. No angry fists slamming the table in frustration.
Instead, the 23-year-old's words were even. His tone tinged with disappointment but not devastation. He smiled, or tried to.
When asked how he could be so composed, Hildebrand just shrugged.
"I'm pretending pretty well, I guess," he said with a wry grin.
Racing with a discipline and savvy that belied his youth, Hildebrand drove beyond his years for nearly three hours Sunday. He avoided the kind of trouble that befell his more experienced competitors and put himself in position to become the ninth rookie winner in the race's 100 history by deftly stretching his gas mileage over the final 30-plus laps.
But one nudge of the steering wheel changed everything. Just a few hundred yards from the finish, Hildebrand's No. 4 Panther Racing Honda slammed into the wall after attempting to pass Charlie Kimball's lapped car on the outside.
He finished second to Dan Wheldon and understands what he lost. If given the chance to do it again, he would play it safer.
"I felt like I just made a mistake, and it (hurt) our boys," Hildebrand said. "I guess that's why rookies don't win the Indianapolis 500 a whole lot."
Hildebrand promises he'll be back. He's been a full-time IndyCar driver for all of two months, driving the same No. 4 that Wheldon left last year when his contract with Panther expired.
The last lap humbled him. He's not going to let it define him.
"On the stats it will show that I finished second in my rookie year and all this kind of stuff, but we had better than that (Sunday)," Hildebrand said. "It's just tough."
After all, this is the same guy who put off a chance to go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology after graduating from high school so he could give this racing thing a shot.
Panther Racing co-owner John Barnes doesn't want his young driver going anywhere.
"I'm sure he's down," Barnes said. "He (doesn't) need to be down. He has nothing to be ashamed about or upset about."
Afterward, Hildebrand was more concerned about how his gaffe affected his team rather than his career path: "It's just a bummer."