INDYCAR: Hinchcliffe taking loss 'on the chin'

For 76 days, it was a running joke that James Hinchcliffe was still leading the Firestone 600 in what was most likely the record for time spent leading an IndyCar race. So for Hinchcliffe to dominate the way he did – leading 188 of 248 laps – and lose on a last-lap pass by Graham Rahal, it was bound to be disappointing.

"It was all going pretty well," Hinchcliffe lamented. "Pit stops were clean, in and out laps were good, car was great in traffic great on our own. We set up our car today to take care of the tires and be good over a stint and that's what we did and that's what put us, we lapped everybody but fifth place, I think so far before that first caution came out. The first [caution] didn't really worry me too much because we were built for long runs but as they kept coming and the laps got shorter and shorter I knew it was going to be harder and harder and then ultimately when [Kanaan and Pagenaud] stopped for tires and we didn't I think that was the nail in the coffin.

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"When we cleared Tony and it was just me and Graham coming down to the checkered, I thought the momentum is on the outside. I feel like I've kind of seen it here 10 times before in races in years past, and I thought we were still going to be able to do it.

"But man, he rolled through the center of [Turns] 3 and 4 with a whole lot of speed. I hadn't been next to a car all night that cleared me that quickly. That was the time to make that move.

"It's just tough. To have such a dominant car all day and to not walk away with a win is super upsetting, but I'm super proud of the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports guys and happy with a Honda 1-2. It was great racing there at the end – it was a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, I had an absolute blast out there, it was like the Texas of old, and it was definitely a better show at the end there for the fans than it would have been if it had stayed green all day.

Rahal, who picked up his first win since last year's race at Mid-Ohio, gave Hinchcliffe credit for an excellent run.

"I've got to tip my hat off to Hinch. He did a great job tonight," Rahal said. "He led that thing pretty well from start to finish other than a couple hundred yards. Great job by him and TK. ... I thought [Kanaan would be] be stuck behind the lapped cars and I thought it would come down to a duel between Hinch and I, but we fended him off."

Hinchcliffe, who has finished third, fifth, 10th and second in the past four races, admitted that letting a win slip away would burn for a while.

"We'll take that one on the chin, but I'm definitely going to be losing a little bit of sleep over that."