JR Hildebrand was named the oval racer for AJ Foyt Racing on Friday and will make his season debut next week at Texas Motor Speedway.
Hildebrand will share Chevrolet No. 11 with Tatiana Calderon, the Colombian racer hired for this year’s road and street racing. Calderon, the only woman in the IndyCar field, has no experience with ovals.
Hildebrand has 66 IndyCar starts in his career, including 11 in a row in the Indianapolis 500. He narrowly won the race as a rookie in 2011 but crashed when the lead was in the final innings and was lost. Dan Wheldon crossed to win. Hildebrand finished second.
He ran Indianapolis last year for Foyt as the fourth entrant and placed 15th.
Hildebrand said: “I am delighted to have this opportunity to get back in the car, race a little more and work with the AJ Foyt Racing team again. “While the results may not be exceptional on paper, I’m really impressed by what we achieved last year at the 500 mark and look forward to hitting these other ovals on the IndyCar schedule. “
Hildebrand will be teammates with rookies Kyle Kirkwood and Dalton Kellettboth drive the entire IndyCar schedule for Foyt.
Hildebrand will run in Texas next Sunday, Indianapolis in May, Iowa in July and Gateway in August.
“We had a great experience working with JR last year, and he’s certainly very competitive at Indianapolis,” said group president Larry Foyt. “He’s still very motivated to drive Indy cars and is a technical, setup-savvy racer and will be a strong addition to our oval races this year.”
