James Hinchcliffe Perfect Again In First Night Of 'DWTS' Finals

James Hinchcliffe earned another perfect score during the first half of the ‘DWTS’ Season 23 finals. Watch the IndyCar star’s Monday routines here.

James Hinchcliffe was impressive again during Monday night’s first half of the Dancing with the Stars finals, even though the IndyCar star and partner Sharna Burgess were one of two couples on the DWTS chopping block.

Hinchcliffe and Burgess were the last couple to be called safe when the semifinals results were read, with singer-actress Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko being the duo that was eliminated. You can watch the elimination announcement here.

It was the first time that Hinchcliffe had been the last to be called safe in the entirety of Season 23.

He and Burgess went on to perform two dances in the run-up to the DWTS season ender. The first was a “redemption dance,” getting a second chance to choreograph a routine for a dance style that the judges felt they could improve upon. For Team Stop and Go, that was the foxtrot, which they performed in Week 1.

Their second-chance foxtrot, featuring a library theme and set to “It Had To Be You” by Harry Connick Jr., earned them 37 out of a possible 40 points because of a stumble during the routine. However, that was still six points higher than the 31 their original number received. Watch the new foxtrot below:

After that Hinchcliffe and Burgess returned with a freestyle number using The Piano Guys’ version of “Beethoven’s 5 Secrets.” This routine will particularly be of interest to IndyCar fans as it opened with a narration from Hinchcliffe about his near-fatal accident before last year’s Indianapolis 500. Watch it here:

The number blew away DWTS judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Julianne Hough, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, who gave it perfect scores – the third time that Hinchcliffe has been scored perfect all season, tying him with Helio Castroneves in that respect.

Hinchcliffe and Burgess will find out if they’re the Season 23 winners on Tuesday night, but they still have an uphill battle. They came in second of the three remaining couples with Laurie Hernandez and Valentin Chmerkovskiy earning just one more point. And it should be noted that all three finalists received perfect scores for their freestyles in this first half of the finals.

The Dancing with the Stars winner will be revealed Tuesday at 8/7c on ABC.