[h=2]Long Beach IndyCar notebook[/h] Friday, 07 April 2017


By Marshall Pruett / Images by Pruett, Dale Coyne Racing & IMS Photo

Notes from Friday's IndyCar activities at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

JR Hildebrand clearly enjoys being the one long-haired hippie within the all-business Ed Carpenter Racing team. Compared to his team owner, whose hair is always short and meticulously coiffed, Hildebrand has chosen to embrace his inner rebel and let his locks grow and grow.
He's the easiest driver for fans to spot among the 22 Verizon IndyCar Series pilots in the field at his home state race, and he plans to keep it that way to for his No. 1 supporter.
"Obviously I'm from California, and I sort of don't care," the 29-year-old told RACER. "My wife's been digging on it, so who's more important than that to be appeasing with my general look? Even in the IndyCar Series, there's been some history of long-haired dudes who've had success, so I don't think I'm an outlier from that perspective. I do think we occasionally take ourselves a little too seriously, so it doesn't bother me to be disrupting that trend."
To his surprise, Carpenter has supported the unkempt look so far, and to his dismay, he recently learned Mrs. Hildebrand's appreciation for long hair isn't limited to her husband.
"Ed's told me he wants to make sure that if I last the season this way, he wants me to play Jesus for his kids around Christmas time!" he said while laughing. "I don't feel like I need to conform to anybody's ideas. For a while [Alex Tagliani] was going with the Tony Stark look for a while with his beard that was very much a Bronte Tagliani request, and I've got the same kind of program going on with my better half with Keanu Reeves.
"We just watched 'John Wick' and 'John Wick 2' the other day, and there was clearly a little glimmer in her eye during those movies ... and I'm thinking, do I have competition here? I mean, I'm an effing IndyCar driver, right?"