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Briscoe Honors Hinch With Impressive Indy Finish

Ryan Briscoe had a solid run, finishing 12th, the highest of the replacement drivers. [Mark Walczak Photo]

Ryan Briscoe had a solid run, finishing 12th, the highest of the replacement drivers. [Mark Walczak Photo]

Indianapolis—Ryan Briscoe took over injured Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver James Hinchcliffe’s ride and brought the car home to a twelfth-place finish in the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

“I want to thank Sam Schmidt for the opportunity,” he said post-race of his team-owner. “It was all last-minute and I just jumped into the car and went.”

It was an unsurprising result for Briscoe, who has continued to hone his post-INDYCAR driving skills in sports cars and will run in the 24-hours of Le Mans in only a few weeks.

“It’s the Indy 500 and we had a good run today,” he continued. “The pit stops were phenomenal—all credit to the team.”

Though he started in the last row, in the 31st position, Ryan never had a doubt that his experience in an INDYCAR would pay off.

“I moved forward from the back and almost got into the top ten,” he said, “but just not quite. Still, it was a lot of fun out there.”

At the line Briscoe was only 5.6 seconds in arears of the winner Juan Pablo Montoya, and finished the day with an average speed of 161.2 mph over 200 laps on the 2.5 mile oval.

“You usually prepare over a full year for this race,” he said of his opportunity to start the 500 for the tenth time in his career. “I felt really confident that even with only a few laps I’d be able to find my groove again.”

When 33-year old Australian received the call to sit in for the popular “Hinch” he was determined make the most of it both for himself and the Canadian he replaced.

“We’re all thinking of Hinch today, and I was thinking of him throughout the race as well,” Briscoe said.

Hinchcliffe underwent surgery May 18th for a pelvic and upper left thigh injury suffered in a crash during practice earlier that day.

New to Briscoe, of course, was the new aerodynamics package that has been added to the series competition since last season.

“The downforce is similar to before,” he said. “The way the car drives is similar as well.”

Briscoe was a series regular at Team Penske until the end of the 2013 campaign, and over his INDYCAR career earned 130 starts.

He was the 2012 pole sitter at Indy and that year tied his best finish of fifth from 2007 in the Memorial Day race. In 2014 he started 30th in the NTT Data entry for Chip Ganassi Racing and finished 18th.

At the end, though, it didn’t sound like there was enough to bring the popular Aussie back to the series.

“It’s been an absolute whirlwind for the last four or five days,” he said, “but I’ve met a lot of great people, made a lot of friends, and I wish the SPM team all the best over the remainder of the season.”

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