James Hinchcliffe got the raw end of the deal with Arrow McLaren SP. But, if he plays his cards right, it could wind up being a blessing is disguise.

It all starts under the lights at the Texas Motor Speedway in prime time on Saturday night.

Before we get to the now, we have to rewind to late last year. The talented Canadian driver was let out of his contract with the newly merged team despite having a deal in place for the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season. While Hinchcliffe had a deal with Honda too, his long time backer, he went as far as to terminate his deal with them in order to stay with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and their recent merger with McLaren Racing as well as their transfer from Honda to Chevrolet power.

While in a lame duck status for 2020, Hinchcliffe honored his commitment and was told the team would theirs. Then, he got blindsided and was told he was out of a ride. It was honestly too late in the year now to realistically find a new full time effort for this season. So, they turned their focus on a part time role instead.

The hardwork paid off — albeit in a weird way. His new sponsor, Genesys, contacted Hinchcliffe through his DM’s or as the kids call it these days “sliding into his DMs.” A short amount of time passed and Hinchcliffe had a sponsor. Now, he needed a team.

Andretti Autosport had a part time extra car available for Fernando Alonso. But, Honda still didn’t want to back Alonso, so in a weird way, that seat became open and Hinchcliffe now had money.

The two sides came back together and the rest was history. Hinchcliffe and Genesys would partner with Andretti for a three race deal for 2020. One of those races included the event at the Texas Motor Speedway.

See, at this time of year, we should be heading to Texas following the Indy 500 a couple of weeks ago and Belle Isle last weekend. Hinchliffe and Genesys should be coming to the Lone Star State off of a bright Month of May and wowing their sponsors for what should have been the third and final race of their 2020 campaign.

On top of that, not only was Hinchcliffe’s orange No. 29 Honda going to be circling the 1.5-mile track on June 6 with Genesys’ branding, he’d be doing so in their race too — the Genesys 600.

Fast forward to now. He’s heading to Texas, just in a vastly different situation. Instead of this being the ninth race of the season and Hinchcliffe’s third start, it’s the first for both . Instead of the race being the Genesys 600, it’s the Genesys 300 (48 laps shorter). Instead of Genesys branding everywhere, it’s not. Fans aren’t allowed. This race is taking place as a one-day show behind closed doors.

“Well, I mean, it certainly affects how they approach Texas,” Hinchcliffe said on Wednesday. “This was supposed to be the third of three races for us, and obviously they jumped on as the entitlement sponsor. It was kind of going to be a big blowout swan song for our season. But ultimately the way it worked out, it’s the first time the Genesys car is on track, it’s at the Genesys 300, and no one is allowed to be there.

“Obviously, that’s a big kick in the pants for everybody there, but I’ve got to say the company and everybody at Genesys is handling this incredibly well. They’re still super motivated. They’re very excited. We’re going to be in the first two races of the year, which is great for them, great exposure. The fact that the race is INDYCAR’s season opener, I think it brings a lot of added exposure for them, which is good, as does the change from NBC Sports Network to NBC proper on Saturday night.

“It’s definitely a bummer, and they’re very sad they can’t be there, but they’re still fully behind the program and hopefully, we can go out and put on a great show for them and bring home a great result for the Genesys car.”

Hinchcliffe, sees a silver lining as he is going to get that car with a larger TV audience though. Without fans in the stands and the race being moved to network TV in primetime in the midst of a global pandemic, the Genesys 300 becomes a bigger TV event that initially expected.

“It’s the first race of our season, so hopefully, it draws all the fans out and everybody that’s just kind of craving not just motorsports but live sports in general, and we’re all very hopeful that it’s going to be not only a great show on track but a big show in terms of viewership,” Hinchcliffe said on how big the race could be for the series.

Another odd but good factor for Hinchcliffe is, that he’s not being the eight ball in learning the new Aeroscreen, nor at a disadvantage in that his first race is also everyone else’s. If nothing happened and we went status quo, everyone else would have a four race headstart on Hinchcliffe by time he got to Indianapolis last month.

“Yeah, I think any time there’s a new situation and a new challenge, each team/driver combination thinks they’re going to get on top of it faster and better and it’s going to be an advantage for them,” Hinchcliffe continued. “You have to try to have that mindset and you have to try to figure out what those potential advantages could be and how can you manage a situation that’s maybe a bit unique better than the competitors.

“I think one of the general advantages that we have at Andretti Autosport as a team is we have about a third of the field in our garage, so for limited practice, with a new component on the car that’s going to be a big effect on a lot of different elements, I think that does put us in a good spot. As Colton alluded to earlier, we’ve got some very experienced guys at this place and some guys that have had a lot of success at tracks like this.

“It is a challenge, but yeah, this is what we live for. We survive on challenges, we thrive on challenges, and even more so in my situation because it is a new team for me. I don’t know a lot of the procedures and protocols. By the time I was coming into the racing side of this season, I was going to have four races to kind of be with the team and learn how they operate and sort of incorporate myself a little bit. Now I’m going to get half a day.

“But again, it’s what we do, and we’re going to go out there and put on the best show possible. I don’t think there’s a team that would be better than Andretti Autosport to tackle this one with, so I’m excited about that.”

Hinchcliffe, has been great at Texas in the past and notes that he’s trying to have his own Ryan Hunter-Reay moment with Andretti. Hunter-Reay didn’t have a long term deal with the team when he first joined them and then he went out and won Long Beach and hasn’t missed a start since.

Hinchcliffe notes that if he can win Texas and do well in the GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis, that he has the first two races of the season on his calendar and a month between them. It gives him time to secure more funding to attempt to run in more races than initially scheduled this season.