J.R. Hildebrand was named the oval driver for A.J. Foyt Racing on Friday and can make his season debut subsequent week at Texas Motor Speedway.

Hildebrand will share the No. 11 Chevrolet with Tatiana Calderon, the Colombian driver employed to race the road and highway programs this 12 months. Calderon, the one girl within the IndyCar discipline, has no oval expertise.

Hildebrand has 66 profession IndyCar begins, together with 11 straight begins within the Indianapolis 500. He practically gained the race as a rookie in 2011 however crashed because the chief getting into the ultimate flip and was handed by Dan Wheldon for the win. Hildebrand completed second.

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He ran Indianapolis final 12 months for Foyt as a fourth entry and completed fifteenth.

“I am excited to have this chance to get again within the automotive, do some extra racing and work with the A.J. Foyt Racing squad once more,” Hildebrand stated. “Though the outcomes could not have seemed particular on paper, I used to be actually impressed by what we completed final 12 months on the 500 and stay up for attacking these different ovals on the IndyCar schedule.”

Hildebrand shall be teammates with rookie Kyle Kirkwood and Dalton Kellett, who each drive the total IndyCar schedule for Foyt.

Hildebrand will run at Texas subsequent Sunday, Indianapolis in Might, the July doubleheader at Iowa and at Gateway in August.

“We had an amazing expertise working with J.R. final 12 months, and there’s no doubt he’s very aggressive at Indianapolis,” staff president Larry Foyt stated. “He’s nonetheless very motivated to drive Indy vehicles and is a setup-savvy, technical driver who shall be a robust addition to our oval races this 12 months.”