|
 Hinchcliffe signed a multi-year deal to take the place of Simon
Pagenaud, who is moving to Team Penske next year.
The 27-year-old Hinchcliffe was with Andretti Autosport for the past
three years after he replaced Danica Patrick, who left for NASCAR.
He has three wins and seven top-three finishes in 68 career starts.
"Despite being around in Indy Lights for years, SPM is a relatively
young team in the IndyCar paddock," Hinchcliffe said in a statement.
"To see what they have accomplished in the last few seasons has been
incredible. Winning races, being competitive at all tracks and
finishing in the top five in the championship against more
experienced teams at this level is impressive. Because they are
young, there is still room for them to grow and improve, and that's
an exciting thought for me."
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports is expected to field a two-car team in
2015 with Hinchcliffe and Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin, an IndyCar
rookie in 2014.
Aleshin was injured in an Aug. 29 practice crash at Auto Club
Speedway in Fontana, Calif., while preparing for the final race of
the season in the series and is recovering.
"James had great success in Indy Lights and other series on his way
to IndyCar," team owner Sam Schmidt said in a statement. "In fact,
he would already be with us driving the No. 77 if he would have been
available three years ago. We went after him in 2011, but it didn't
work out then.
[to top of second column] |
"We know that his success in the Verizon IndyCar Series is no fluke.
We've now won races and contended for championships, and we believe
he's going to be the person we need to keep moving forward as a
team. It's a very big compliment to the team that James wants to
come drive for us and that he thinks that he can win and contend for
championships with us."
Whether Andretti Autosport replaces Hinchcliffe remains to be seen.
Andretti has 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco
Andretti and Carlos Munoz signed for next season.
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