The Canadian crossed the line 1.5 seconds ahead of Andretti team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay after having led virtually the entire race, with Tony Kanaan making a late-race pass on Graham Rahal to secure third.
Hinchcliffe claimed the lead from polesitter Will Power right at the start, and while the gap to his pursuers fluctuated as the leaders navigated lapped traffic, his claim to the top spot never really looked under threat.
Rahal came closest of anyone, running side-by-side with Hinchcliffe for a couple of laps on a restart before falling back behind the Andretti car.
If Hinchcliffe’s race was straightforward, Hunter-Reay’s was anything but.
The reigning series champion damaged his front wing when he made contact with Rahal early on, and after stopping for repairs he rejoined in 19th as the last car on the lead lap. But he picked his way back through the field and was back with the lead group with 90 of the 250 laps still to run.
KV’s Tony Kanaan recovered from an overheating problem to make a late move on Rahal and pinch the final podium spot, and Rahal lost another place to Ed Carpenter on the final lap.
Carpenter had rolled the dice on strategy and delayed his final visit to the pits in the hope of a late yellow, but a slow stop meant that any advantage would have been neutralised anyway.
It was a long afternoon for many of the traditional big guns. Power spent the race going steadily backwards though the field and finished three laps down in 17th, while Dario Franchitti was never able to get his car hooked up in the first place and was a further lap in arrears in 20th.
Results – 250 laps:Pos Driver Team/Engine Time/Gap
1. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Chevy 1h30m16.0266s
2. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Chevy +1.5009s
3. Tony Kanaan KV/Chevy +1.6891s
4. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy +2.7605s
5. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda +3.0201s
6. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda +6.6654s
7. Oriol Servia Panther/Chevy +9.7006s
8. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy +10.6855s
9. Marco Andretti Andretti/Chevy +12.7133s
10. EJ Viso Andretti/Chevy +17.6157s
11. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda +1 lap
12. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Honda +1 lap
13. Tristan Vautier Schmidt/Honda +2 laps
14. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon/Chevy +2 laps
15. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda +2 laps
16. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Honda +3 laps
17. Will Power Penske/Chevy +3 laps
18. James Jakes Rahal/Honda +3 laps
19. Sebastian Saavedra Dragon/Chevy +3 laps
20. Dario Franchitti Ganassi/Honda +4 laps
21. Simona de Silvestro KV/Chevy +7 lapsRetirements:
Ana Beatriz Coyne/Honda 183 laps
Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 162 laps
Alex Tagliani Herta/Honda 139 laps
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