finish in the 500 was the best of ECR’s three-car effort.

ECR again brought Hildebrand in for both races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016, where he finished 6th in the Indianapolis 500 – his best result since a runner-up in his rookie year of 2011. When Josef Newgarden was injured during the race at Texas Motor Speedway in June, Hildebrand instantly stepped into assume testing duties of the No. 21 throughout the summer. One week after Hildebrand refined the setup of the car during a test at Iowa Speedway, Newgarden won after leading 282 of 300 laps.

Team owner Ed Carpenter remarked, “We first started talking about this in 2013 and the timing has just now worked to give JR an opportunity to show what he can doby winning on each type of track the series competes on – street and road courses, short ovals and speedways. Carpenter captured back-to-back pole positions at the 2013 and 2014 Indianapolis 500s and Newgarden started in the middle of the front row in 2016. The Speedway, Ind.-based team has 21 Top 5 finishes to date, 15 of which have been podiums.

Outside of racing, Hildebrand has a passion for using motorsports to inspire students in STEM subject areas, recently working on a virtual reality project to create Indy car-focused educational programming. In early 2016, Stanford University appointed Hildebrand as an adjunct lecturer, where he primarily works with the Stanford Revs Program developing autonomous vehicle technology. Hildebrand was accepted into MIT out of high school, but deferred admission to pursue