[MotorSports News]

Special to indycar.com
J.R. Hildebrand was kind of at loose ends at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The 21-year old from Sausalito, Calif., had clinched the 2009 Firestone Indy Lights championship five weeks earlier at Chicagoland Speedway. He finished second in the Homestead-Miami 100, losing out to Mario Romancini in a sprint to the line after driving a conservative race in which his main focus was in trying to help secure second place in the standings for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing teammate Sebastian Saavedra.
Click it: Hildebrand bio, stats and more
You got the impression Hildebrand believed he could have won the season finale had he really tried. But it didn't come across as cockiness or arrogance -- just a quiet, intelligent reading of the situation. It's the kind of analysis you would expect from a young man who took a deferment from enrolling in Massachusetts Institute of Technology to continue his open-wheel racing career.
Hildebrand doesn't yet know what he'll be doing in 2010, so maybe it's good he already has that lined up as a backup plan. But given what he's shown so far in his career, it's unrealistic to believe he won't be behind the wheel of something fast next year.
"Hopefully a really fast IndyCar season next year," he said. "We'll see what we can get."
Hildebrand established himself as a top American open-wheel formula car prospect when he won the Team USA Scholarship in 2005. His progression through the fractured American ladder system has been rapid; he cruised to the 2006 Formula Ford 2000 crown, raced in the Atlantic Series and made his Firestone Indy Lights debut in 2007, then won his first race with Andersen/RLR Racing in 2008 and finishing fifth in the standings.
For 2009, Hildebrand moved to the AFS Racing/AGR Racing program and netted four wins and six poles. Now he faces the challenge of making the jump to the IndyCar Series, like his Firestone Indy Lights title-winning predecessor at the team, Raphael Matos, who made the transition with Luczo Dragon Racing this year.
Hildebrand also drove AGR's entry in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport twice in 2009 and tested one of the team's IndyCar Series cars on several occasions, making him arguably America's most diverse open-wheel driver this year.
"I feel the Lights car isn't that much different to the IndyCar in terms of its general characteristics," he observed. "Obviously, with the IndyCar, you have to deal with a lot more power, which is the biggest thing you have to get used to. But I didn't have to change the way I drive the car much. Sometimes you go from one car to another and the tires are different and you have to change how you approach driving the car, certainly on a road course. I was able to get up to speed in the IndyCar and feel pretty comfortable right away.
"Of all the cars I've driven over the last two to three years, save for maybe some vintage cars, the A1 car required the biggest difference in terms of driving style compared to an IndyCar, Lights car or Atlantic car. The A1 car, having more of a European style tire with a big sidewall and small rim, the setup is totally different. We found ourselves really scratching our heads. You'd think it would do one thing and it would be the total opposite because the tire is so much different. When I raced the car, I had to sit down and think about what I really needed to do to go fast and adjust how I was looking at the whole thing. The car was just that much different."
Hildebrand enjoyed his A1GP experience, which peaked with a fourth-place finish at Brands Hatch. Although his preference is to race IndyCars, he believes that American drivers can succeed on a world stage.
"There are a lot of stigmas about American drivers going abroad, maybe because there hasn't been anyone who was ultra-successful for a very long time," he said. "I tried to look at it as another race against a bunch of guys I hadn't driven against before, on new circuits I hadn't seen. That can be daunting, and obviously you are on a more global platform. That changes things a little bit.
"But we went over and had a great time, though the results were a bit frustrating. People take their racing very seriously, and road racing is very big. At the time, you hear that so much over here that it's so cut-throat and intense and you're just going to get chewed up and spit out, that it makes people more nervous than they need to be. It's just another car, just another series."
Hildebrand is grateful to Michael Andretti for the opportunities, and remains hopeful that Andretti's reorganized team can find a way to run him in the IndyCar Series. But he is also talking to other team owners.
"I'm optimistic about things moving forward," he said. "This last year, with the economic climate changing as much as it did, I wouldn't say it helps my cause. But at the same time, maybe it gives me a little more time because people are going to be a little more cautious about the decisions they are making. I've certainly had some positive conversations with people and I feel there is interest in helping me move up.
"I'm just trying to make sure I have as many options as possible when things do come around and I'm trying to come up with some money on my own. There's no rhyme or reason to how guys get rides a lot of the time; they're just in the right place at the right time. While I'd certainly like to be a lot more in control of my own future than that, hopefully I can get something lined up so when the planets do align, I'll be able to take full advantage."


10/27 :: 'When the planets do align'