NAZARETH, Pa. – Sage Karam briefly stops near a row of windows to point out where he and his “crew” would sit during his favorite period at Nazareth Area High School.

Karam and Co. had hooked a prime table in the cafeteria, which provided an exceptional view to “check out all the girls” in the hallway. The room’s scenery hasn’t changed, but Karam’s window to the world has been altered dramatically since his last school day.

The 20-year-old Verizon IndyCar Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate leads a lighthearted media tour of the school as part of a promotional day for the ABC Supply 500 at nearby Pocono Raceway on Aug. 23.

Karam, a 2014 graduate of Nazareth Area High School, will make his first start at “The Tricky Triangle” in the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Teams Chevrolet. Karam, who was runner-up in the 2013 Indy Lights race at Pocono Raceway on the way to securing the series championship, earned his first Verizon IndyCar Series podium finish July 18 at Iowa Speedway.

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Walking into the wrestling room with the large script Blue Eagles painted on one wall, Karam is at home. It’s where he shed more than weight as a wrestler (he was 22-6 in the 145-pound class as a senior) and where he learned, in part, mental and physical attributes of being a professional athlete. Wrestling also shaped his character for the road ahead.

“Pretty much, when the going gets tough, just don’t put your head down,” Karam says. “You never want to put your head down on the mat; you’re always in the match until the buzzer goes in the third period.

“What you’re doing, racing or wrestling, it’s not always all about you, it’s about your team. If you don’t make weight, you’re not only letting yourself down, you’re letting everyone else around you down because now coach needs to make changes for weights. In racing, it’s whatever you can do to help your team. It’s trying to set your car up, and everything.”

A wide smile crosses Karam’s face when his former wrestling coach, Dave Crowell, approaches.

“Sage was key to our team’s energy level, I would say,” says Crowell, who also coached Karam’s father, Jody, and uncle on the mat. “A lot of personality, a lot of really great leadership skills. Usually the way Sage is going is the way the room is going. If he’s not going good, then nobody’s going good, which is a really great quality.

“Jody (Karam) is a very point blank guy. He told me, ‘He is not here to be a state champion. That’s not why I want him to wrestle. I want him to wrestle because it’s good for him to wrestle.’ Just like Sage said, he’s going to learn things and he’s going to get a lot from the experience, it’s going to be very important for him later on. That’s a pretty mature thing for a coach to say about his own son, that he cares about who he becomes in the process.

“He became a man through the process. And I’m very proud that I maybe had a tiny bit to do with that.”

Earlier in the day, Karam participated in drills, stretches and fitness testing at Lehigh Valley Health Network’s new One City Center -- a state-of-the-art public fitness center – in Allentown, Pa. LHVN personnel staffs the infield care center at Pocono Raceway.

In February, Karam and CFH Racing driver Josef Newgarden participated in drills at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

“Foam rolling, stretching is a big part, core exercises,” he says. “Obviously, we don’t use the 40-yard dash and the vertical jump in (training). That’s more power stuff and we work on more conditioning and overall staying physically strong. Lots of neck exercises for the G forces. One of the big things we work on is neck, shoulder, back, core and arms.”