Sage Karam’s fourth overall Indianapolis 500 and third with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will see a cool black and yellow livery return to his No. 24 Chevrolet, as Mecum Auctions will be the car’s primary sponsor.
Mecum has been a past DRR partner before, with Oriol Servia behind the wheel. Now they’ll take over primary sponsorship for the talented young 22-year-old at the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.
Mecum Auctions, which air on NBCSN, is the world’s largest collector-car auction company. On Servia’s car in 2012, the team finished fourth. Two years later in 2014, Karam won the race’s “Hard Charger” award as he advanced from 31st to ninth.
Notes from the release are below:
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“Mecum Auctions is proud to mark our 30th Anniversary this year. Between our tremendous Indianapolis auction and the Indy 500 opportunity with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, this month of May is set to be one of our most exciting celebrations ever. I can’t wait to put a Mecum “SOLD” sticker on the bottle of milk in Victory Lane,” said Dana Mecum, President and Founder of Mecum Auctions.
The Dreyer & Reinbold family has a long history in the Indy 500 dating back to the 1920s with legendary car builder Floyd “Pop” Dreyer. Dennis Reinbold, Dreyer’s grandson, has been a car owner in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” since 2000 and has successfully qualified 37 entries in the race. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, a past winner in the Verizon IndyCar Series, has recorded four top-ten finishes in the Indy 500 including fourth in 2012, seventh in 2010, eighth in 2008 and ninth in 2014.
“We are very excited to have the Mecum Auto Auctions back with our Indy 500 effort in 2017,” said Reinbold, owner of the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing organization. “We had a great performance with the Mecum in 2012 with a fourth. The great livery of the Mecum Auctions car again at the Indy 500 will be extremely popular with the fans too. We can’t wait to see Sage and the No. 24 Mecum Auctions Chevy on the world’s greatest race track in a week or so.”
Karam got the opportunity to step up to the big stage by winning the 2013 Indy Lights Series championship and now also drives in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, competing with co-driver Scott Pruett in a Lexus RCF GT3 GTD sports car.
“I watch the Mecum Auctions on NBCSN regularly and am excited about this month in Indy,” said Karam. “It looks like a blast. I’m a car guy like most of the people in the Indy 500 garages. A lot of drivers have to work with some sponsor that aren’t too exciting for them. But I can tell you that the Mecum sponsorship gets me very excited because of my interest in their cars. To work with a sponsor which has some very historic and amazing machinery is very cool for me. We want to make sure that our No. 24 Mecum Auctions Chevrolet looks good all month for them.”
The month of May is truly a celebration for Mecum Auctions, as the company commemorates its monumental 30th anniversary with a 2,000-car offering at Dana Mecum’s Original Spring Classic auction May 16-20 in Indianapolis. Headlining the auction are several prestigious collections and a vast assortment of American muscle cars, classics, Corvettes hot rods, Resto Mods, and more at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Coupled with the sponsorship of Karam in the Indianapolis 500, Mecum Auctions will be a prominent player in the Circle City’s signature month.
Details for that auction are below:
Auction Schedule
Dana Mecum’s 30th Original Spring Classic
May 16-20, 2017
Indiana State Fairgrounds
1202 E 38th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46205
Admission: $20 in advance online, and $30 at the door and online once auction starts—per person, per day; children 12 and younger receive complimentary admission
Preview: Gates daily open at 8 a.m.
Auction: Vehicles begin at 10 a.m. daily; Road Art begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
TV Schedule: (NBCSN, all times ET) Thursday, May 18 from 12:30-4 p.m. (live) and 4:30-6 p.m. (live); Friday, May 19 from noon-3 p.m. (live); Saturday, May 20 from 12:30-2:30 p.m. (live) and 8 p.m.-midnight; Sunday, May 21 from6:30 p.m.-midnight; Wednesday, May 24 from midnight-3 a.m.
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Editor’s note: Sage Karam’s blogs will again appear during the month of May on NBCSports.com. An archive of Karam’s 2016 blogs are linked here.