James Hinchcliffe Nets Two More 10's On 'Dancing With The Stars'
James Hinchcliffe was two points shy of a perfect score on this week’s ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ Watch the IndyCar star’s Week 6 ‘Salsa Night’ routine here.
James Hinchcliffe might be calling Helio Castroneves and gloating after a Dancing with the Stars performance that led Julianne Hough to declare Hinchcliffe the “best male dancer” ever to appear on the ABC reality show.
On “Latin Night,” IndyCar‘s Hinchcliffe and partner Sharna Burgess performed a rumba to James Bay’s song “Need The Sun To Break.” They earned 38 out of a possible 40 points, with judges Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli each awarding the duo the maximum 10 points.
Hough and guest judge Pitbull each gave 9 out of 10 points to Team Stop and Go. Hough flattered Hinchcliffe by saying he was the best male dancer in the show’s history, but then she promptly earned boos from the crowd when she asked for more chemistry between him and Burgess.
Tonioli even responded to her comments in his critique, quipping that the duo won “the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.” Decide who you agree with when you watch the routine below:
While they were almost perfect for the second straight outing – they earned two 10’s and a 9 for their “Most Memorable Year” tango last week, which fans can re-watch at the end of this article – Hinchcliffe and Burgess can be proud of earning the second highest score of Monday evening.
The only team to beat them were Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko, who were graded perfect with their Argentine tango to Selena Gomez’s “Hands To Myself.”
That should keep James Hinchcliffe on Dancing with the Stars for another week, but the judges’ scores are combined with viewer votes to determine elimination. Model Amber Rose was cut from the show Monday, but everyone else won’t learn the next cut until Oct. 24 since ABC has removed the Tuesday night results show from its schedule.
Hinchcliffe deserves a particular round of applause this week given that he put together his near perfect rumba routine on a short schedule. He was one of the drivers who participated in the Gateway Motorsports Park tire test on Oct. 13 in St. Louis, and had to jet back to Los Angeles, where Dancing with the Stars films.
Could he join Castroneves as the second IndyCar driver to win the competition? There are still plenty of weeks to go, but high praise – and high scores – are paving his way to the finish line.
More from Beyond the Flag
This article originally appeared on 
