INDYCAR: Hildebrand fighting for ECR drive

JR Hildebrand isn't afraid to come right out and say he wants to be Ed Carpenter's full-time teammate in 2017. The 2009 Indy Lights champion has been on an interesting path since his full-time drive with Panther Racing came to an end in June of 2013, and after three part-time seasons with ECR, the Californian is convinced it's the place to make his return as a championship contender.

Strong showings each year at the Indy 500 in a third Carpenter Chevy have strengthened his ties to the team, and with former ECR leader Josef Newgarden pushing for Hildebrand to join the program last season, he could get his wish as the team searches for Newgarden's replacement.

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"I've been trying to make a full-time deal with ECR happen for a while now and there's no doubt it's where I want to be," Hildebrand told RACER. "Particularly over the last year, we were pretty close and only at the 11th hour did it turn out that I didn't do more races. Even so, Indy went really well, we finished sixth, and I got to do some testing for the team and really got plugged in when Josef was hurt."

Newgarden's bone-breaking crash at Texas saw ECR draft Hildebrand in to assist with testing that helped Newgarden to stomp the field at Iowa. After being thrust into the (temporary) responsibilities that come from leading a full-time program, he says the experience reinforced the need for a second shot at a season-long opportunity.

"Once it came to filling in for Josef – working with the full-time team, having responsibility to the team and being in that full-time-driver mindset, working on my own craft, working on the new aero kit – it whetted my appetite to do this again full-time and it has been at the top of my list to make happen," he added.

"It's not as if it wasn't before, or that I wasn't already trying, but it gave me that extra boost to know that this is what I want to be doing more than anything else right now...and I'm pissed I'm not doing it full-time at the moment."

As a rookie expected to lead a single-car team that focused most of its energies on winning the Indy 500, Hildebrand's time with Panther was marked with significant highs and lows. Both sides brought shortcomings to the effort, and with time and experience gained at ECR, Hildebrand says there's nothing left of the wide-eyed kid seen at Panther.

"That's from a combination of factors: In hindsight I can see that I've only been in one team in a full-time capacity, and with Ed's team, I have a new baseline for what that could be like," he said. "With that in mind, I'm more confident now than ever that I'm capable of getting in, being a super-productive part of the team, and in doing so, being able to use all the tools that IndyCar teams have to compete.

"Things were really hard [at Panther], but I've learned from everything that went down to make myself better. Every ounce of maturity I've gained, all of the skills I've gained or further developed, I feel like I have to prove something and that's why I'm pushing so hard for the chance to do it next year."

Hildebrand built his IndyCar reputation around the ovals. Since 2014, he's finished 10th, eighth, and sixth at the Indy 500 for ECR, and will always have the memorable run to second on his debut from 2011 to remember. Along with top fives at Iowa and Texas, Hildebrand has proven himself as a fine oval driver, but his record on road and street courses haven't been as flattering.

Granted, Panther was rarely accused of focusing its effort outside of the 500, but it's hard to ignore the road racing gaps on his CV. Two appearances for ECR on the IMS road course have also been inconclusive, although in both instances, Hildebrand was coming off a year of inactivity. Provided he gets the nod from ECR, he would welcome the chance to erase any doubts about his road racing skills.

"There's no question in my mind that I'm more confident in my ability to drive in road races for a team these days," he said. "It might sound funny to say, but if you look at where reputations come from, when I was in Indy Lights, all of my poles and all of my wins with Andretti came on road courses. That's the only thing I was known for coming into IndyCar. They come naturally to me. Stepping up to IndyCar with Panther, all of our best results were ovals. That wasn't expected. The little bit of [road course] stuff I've done with ECR has shown me we can be super competitive anywhere we go. I know we can."

Hildebrand also points to the late-career road course development process Tony Kanaan has undergone at Chip Ganassi Racing as proof that fundamental improvements can be made in spite of great experience and success.

"It's been an interesting situation to listen and read about this phenomenon with Tony Kanaan, with this car, in this high-downforce aero kit formula, and needing to rethink what is needed to be fast," he said. "He and his team almost took it down to a philosophical level to figure out what they were missing, and I see a lot of parallels there. That's something I've done on my own.

"When I first came in to IndyCar, I didn't have much of a grasp on it; sometimes we were competitive and sometimes we weren't. When we were good, we never really dug into why, and when we were bad, we never really dug into that, either. Coming back into the series now, I would have a different approach to look at all the small things I need to pay attention to and work on along with the team to identify the right track. It's really about the driver and team working closer together than ever before, and I know I'm ready for it."

As RACER has reported, Hildebrand has competition for the seat from other talented drivers, including two-time Indy 500 winner and 1999 CART champion Juan Montoya. Carpenter has not set a timeline on when he'll select a driver for the No. 21 Chevy.