Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Part I
The cast: Drivers – Charlie Kimball, Sage Karam. Chief engineers – Brad Goldberg (Kimball), Eric Cowdin (Karam)
Twitter: @racewithinsulin, @SageKaram, @CGRindycar
The cars: Nos. 8 (Karam) and 83 (Kimball) Chevrolet
Snapshot: Kimball enters his fifth Verizon IndyCar Series season driving the No. 83 car with primary sponsorship from global diabetes care company Novo Nordisk. Kimball, of Camarillo, Calif., was diagnosed in 2007 with type 1 diabetes. He returned to racing in 2008 – claiming a podium finish in his first race. … He received a Jefferson Award for public service in 2012 for spreading the word about diabetes awareness and management. … He turned 30 on Feb. 20. … In September, he married Kathleen Thompson in Indianapolis. … His father, Gordon, worked with several Indy car and Formula One teams. … Karam made his Verizon IndyCar Series debut in the 2014 Indianapolis 500 in a partnership between Chip Ganassi Racing Teams and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. He qualified 31st and finished ninth – the second-highest finish by a rookie. … Karam, of Nazareth, Pa., turned 20 on March 5.
The stats: Kimball led the Verizon IndyCar Series in positions advanced relative to his starting position in 2014. He recorded a best finish of third at Belle Isle2, moving up 17 positions, and had 10 top-10 finishes overall. … He had a late April through early June stretch of five top-10 finishes in six races, and had a four-race stretch from mid-July through early August of consecutive top-10 finishes. … Season-best qualifying of sixth came in two of the final three races – both on ovals.
The gist: Kimball has made 68 starts over four seasons. He earned his first series victory in 2013 at Mid-Ohio. … He competed in Indy Lights in 2009 and 2010, earning four runner-up finishes in 13 starts in the latter. … Karam won the 2013 Indy Lights championship and 2010 USF2000 title. … He was a state-ranked wrestler and played football in high school. “Wrestling teaches you to be mentally tough. The sacrifices that you have to make within a season to make weight. It's all for you, but then it's also for the team, and you have to put the team before yourself. Just taught me a bunch of life lessons and just made me so mentally tough,” Karam said. ... GE LED will be the primary sponsor on the No. 8 car for the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
They said it: “Last year we left a lot of points on the table and my engineer and I talk about it and get mad at how much is there. That’s the good thing is there’s a lot there but the bad thing is we didn’t get it. We can’t have those mistakes and failures. We have to make sure we get everything available to us.”
Added Karam: “To have guys like (Kimball, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan) and all the knowledge they have and the resources you try to take in as much as you can, but some days you take in too much because they have so much knowledge and experience. They have been so helpful and I’ve learned through them and my engineer, Eric Cowdin, and I’m learning from the whole team. We take it day by day and every day I get more comfortable with the team and build a better relationship and learn more.”
Part II: Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan