Hinchcliffe Beats Lochte In 'Dancing With The Stars' Face-Off

James Hinchcliffe defeated Ryan Lochte in a battle of athletes on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ earning the IndyCar driver Week 3 immunity on the reality show.

IndyCar ace James Hinchcliffe will dance at least one more week on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars after the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver bested Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte in a head to head battle during Monday’s episode of the reality show.

Hinchcliffe and partner Sharna Burgess performed a cha-cha-cha to the song “Big Trouble” by Outasight and earned themselves a combined score of 29, tying their marks from Week 2’s TV Night.

That was more than enough to surpass Lochte and his partner Cheryl Burke, who earned 25 points for their cha-cha-cha to Jason Derulo’s hit “If It Ain’t Love.”

By virtue of being the highest-scoring pair in the head to head “face off,” Hinchcliffe and Burgess are guaranteed immunity in tonight’s elimination episode, regardless of how the viewer votes are totaled.

Watch Hinchcliffe and Burgess’s latest performance below:

In addition to another performance from the duo, ABC also used Week 3 to film a video diary with Hinchcliffe showing him behind the scenes preparing for Dancing with the Stars. Watch Hinch as he works on the cha-cha-cha routine (and makes more of his usual wisecracks) below:

Hinchcliffe and Burgess were once again the fourth-highest scoring couple of the night. Hinch were bested by reality star Terra Jole (30 points), the other Olympic athlete Laurie Hernandez (31 points), and NFL player Calvin Johnson, who won the judges’ highest mark of Monday evening with 32.

Because of the immunity granted to the winners of each “face off,” the only stars eligible to be cut on Tuesday are Lochte, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Rick Perry, Jole (by virtue of losing her “face off” to Johnson), Amber Rose and Marilu Henner.

Though Hinchcliffe isn’t in any danger of elimination during the Week 3 Results Show, you can still tune in to see him – and see who does get their pink slip from the reality competition – on ABC at 8/7 tonight.