James Hinchcliffe is a 29-year-old driver in the IndyCar Racing Series. He is extremely talented and a wonderful human being. As well as overwhelmingly Canadian (in a good way). When I describe Hinch to those who don’t know of him, the first thing I say is that if he weren’t driving cars for a living he’d be a top notch comedian. Unfortunately, James was involved in a freak racing accident last May and was not able to compete in the rest of the season. However, that didn’t break his spirit and he’s back in the car this season and ready for a win. These next points are just a few of the reasons why Hinch is the greatest and just some things that make James, James. Without further adieu, the Best of Hinch:

1. His comedic YouTube videos from the early years.

Let’s start early. Back in 2007, James started a page he named HinchVision where he did some car reviews, talked about his racing season, but most importantly he let his personality show through some pretty hilarious random uploads. One of the best being “Canada’s Favorite Sport” where he started the video eating goldfish as if it wasn’t recording, and then went on to talk about curling rather than lacrosse or hockey. He also put out a video about a game he created while at the race track called “Canadian Flag Tag” where he went around other teams trailers “tagging” them with a Canadian flag. The top video of his in my opinion, however, is “I love the Dentist” where he discusses, rather aggressively, his most recent visit to the dentist. Despite the name you can clearly see Hinch is not very fond of them. I recommend everyone go watch these when you’re done reading.

2. Picking on then rookie, Josef Newgarden.

While we’re on the topic of YouTube videos, one his other most famous video is one where he tours the shop of Josef Newgarden back when he was just getting into IndyCar. This was part of a series called “Inside IndyCar with James Hinchcliffe” back in 2012. The best part of the video is the personalities of both drivers coming together because they’re both so funny. They go around showing the wrong race car at first and just goofing around at various things. It’s hard to explain, but if you’ve seen the video you know what I’m talking about. For those that haven’t go watch it now.

3. Hinch for Homepage.

Ah yes, the good ol’ GoDaddy days. Back in 2013 James decided to start a competition with Nascar driver Danica Patrick to take over the homepage of GoDaddy.com. There were multiple videos and commercials devoted to this rivalry. Hinch even threw on a wig during a driver introduction pretending to be Danica. When the competition was over Hinchcliffe came out victorious and replaced Patrick on the GoDaddy homepage.

4. He calls himself the Mayor of Hinchtown.

Mayor James Hinchcliffe of Hinchtown. It has a nice ring to it right? All of his fans are his loyal citizens. Check it out--> hinchtown.com

5. He has is own Beer.

That’s right, the Mayor himself concocted his own brew he calls the Hinchtown Hammerdown.

6. James has a huge heart.

Hinch has always been one of those people that made sure he had time for his fans. Making sure each gets the autograph or picture they were hoping to. He even does incredible stuff like this:

“Yesterday, we went Karting to raise money for childhood cancer research in honour of my buddy, Ben Burchard, who lost his battle last December. Ben was an incredible kid and a true racer at heart. He reminded me a lot of me at 12. During the event, his mother gave me something he made at school. When I saw the badge, I didn't know whether to smile or cry. His strength through his illness was absolutely incredible. The stuff of heroes. That young man taught me a lot more than he probably realized. So, to you, Ben, all I can say is 'ditto’.”

7. He also has a strong will to give back.

James always says how he will never be able to thank the people that saved his life after his crash enough. He hopes to help other patients feel the same way, so he started a fundraiser together with Methodist Health Foundation in Indiana to raise money for patients that can’t afford the same type of care he received. The foundation is called TraumaPitCrew.com. All of the funds will go towards the IU Health Wound Care Clinic to keep it running and helping anyone that walks through it’s doors. It’s something James feels very strongly about and hopes to help everyone he can.

8. He thinks he’s funny.

As I said before, if James weren’t driving cars, he’d be making people laugh for a living. It’s hard to choose just one example because there are so many, but here’s one post from February. The caption, “Hitting those big weights.”

9. He jokes about his accident in a lighthearted way.

When I said his crash doesn’t get him down I meant it. He spends his time cracking jokes about it and letting it motivate him. His caption for this post back in January was, “I feel you, brother. #tbt.”

10. No seriously, he jokes a lot.

He posted this on Instagram asking if it was too soon. Of course it wasn’t too soon to see that James still had his wonderful sense of humor we all love.

11. His new year’s resolution was to try to not get shish-kabobbed this year.

No explanation needed.

12. Oh, and he grew a beard that he refused to shave until he got back into the car.

Again, no further information needed.

13. The Quest for the Crown.

James’ latest stunt is his quest to become an Indy 500 Festival Princess. This program is built for girls in college to gain networking experience and give back to the communities of Indiana. Hinch has decided that he really wants to be one. So in a series of videos fans can follow his journey through the recruiting stages of the program. So far it’s been pretty funny in true Hinchcliffe fashion. He even has a line of hats with large gold crowns on the front coming out this May.