Sage Karam returns for one-race deal with Carlin at Honda Indy Toronto

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Sage Karam gets a shot at a second NTT IndyCar Series race in 2019 as the driver from Nazareth, Pennsylvania was named to the No. 31 Chevrolet at Carlin on Tuesday. He will join the team’s primary driver, Max Chilton, in a two-car Carlin effort in Canada.

Karam started 31stand finished 19th in the 103rdIndianapolis 500 driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold.

“I want to thank everyone at Carlin for giving me the opportunity to compete in an Indy car again in the NTT IndyCar series,” Karam said in a Carlin team statement. “I’m extremely excited and grateful to get back behind the wheel on a road course again for the first time since 2015 and I’m thrilled to carry a great sponsor like SmartStop Self Storage on the side of the No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge and working closely with everyone on the team to achieve a successful result and take advantage of this incredible opportunity.”

Karam began karting at the age of four and worked his way up through the karting ranks until he joined the Road to Indy Series in 2010. He competed in all levels of the Road to Indy Series winning both the USF2000 and Indy Lights Championships before joining the NTT IndyCar Series in 2014.

 

Karam has made 17 IndyCar Series starts. He finished ninth in his first Indianapolis 500 in 2014 driving for Dreyer & Reinbold. He joined Chip Ganassi Racing in 2015 for a limited schedule of 12 races in the 16-race campaign.

Karam displayed flashes of promise and speed in 2015 with a fifth-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California and a third-place at Iowa that year.

The Toronto race will be Karam’s first start in an IndyCar Series race other than the Indianapolis 500 since Pocono in 2015.

The Carlin entry will be sponsored by self-storage company SmartStop® Self Storage.

“We are extremely excited to partner with SmartStop Self Storage and to be a part of their debut into the NTT IndyCar Series,” said team principal Trevor Carlin. “The Honda Indy Toronto is such a great event and will be the perfect introduction for them into the series.

“We’ve obviously been following Sage’s career closely since he won the Indy Lights Championship in 2013 and he’s done a really great job. I think he’ll be a great addition to the team and a good teammate for Max Chilton this weekend.”

The Honda Indy Toronto on the streets of Toronto will take place on Sunday, July 14th at 3:00 pm ET and will be televised on NBCSN.

After New York whirlwind, Josef Newgarden makes special trip to simulator before Detroit

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DETROIT – There’s no rest for the weary as an Indy 500 winner, but Josef Newgarden discovered there are plenty of extra laps.

The reigning Indy 500 champion added an extra trip Wednesday night back to Concord, N.C., for one last session on the GM Racing simulator before Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

After a 30-year run on the Belle Isle course, the race has been moved to a nine-turn, 1.7-mile layout downtown, so two extra hours on the simulator were worth it for Newgarden.

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“I really wanted to do it,” he told NBC Sports at a Thursday media luncheon. “If there’s any time that the sim is most useful, it’s in this situation when no one has ever been on a track, and we’re able to simulate it as best as we can. We want to get some seat time.

“It’s extra important coming off the Indy 500 because you’ve been out of rhythm for a road or street course-type environment, so I really wanted some laps. I was really appreciative to Chevy. There was a few guys that just came in and stayed late for me so I could get those laps before coming up here. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference, but I feel like it’s going to help for me.”

After a whirlwind tour of New York for two days, Newgarden arrived at the simulator (which is at the GM Racing Technical Center adjacent to Hendrick Motorsports) in time for a two hour session that started at 6 p.m. Wednesday. He stayed overnight in Charlotte and then was up for an early commercial flight to Detroit, where he had more media obligations.

Newgarden joked that if he had a jet, he would have made a quick stop in Nashville, Tennessee, but a few more days away from home (where he has yet to return in weeks) is a worthy tradeoff for winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – though the nonstop interviews can take a toll.

“It’s the hardest part of the gig for me is all this fanfare and celebration,” Newgarden said. “I love doing it because I’m so passionate about the Indy 500 and that racetrack and what that race represents. I feel honored to be able to speak about it. It’s been really natural and easy for me to enjoy it because I’ve been there for so many years.

“Speaking about this win has been almost the easiest job I’ve ever had for postrace celebrations. But it’s still for me a lot of work. I get worn out pretty easily. I’m very introverted. So to do this for three days straight, it’s been a lot.”

Though he is terrified of heights, touring the top of the Empire State Building for the first time was a major highlight (and produced the tour’s most viral moment).

“I was scared to get to the very top level,” Newgarden said. “That thing was swaying. No one else thought it was swaying. I’m pretty sure it was. I really impressed by the facility. I’d never seen it before. It’s one of those bucket list things. If you go to New York, it’s really special to do that. So to be there with the wreath and the whole setup, it just felt like an honor to be in that moment.”

Now the attention shifts to Detroit and an inaugural circuit that’s expected to be challenging. Along with a Jefferson Avenue straightaway that’s 0.9 miles long, the track has several low-speed corners and a “split” pit lane (teams will stop on both sides of a rectangular area) with a narrow exit that blends just before a 90-degree lefthand turn into Turn 1.

Newgarden thinks the track is most similar to the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

“It’s really hard to predict with this stuff until we actually run,” he said. “Maybe we go super smooth and have no issues. Typically when you have a new event, you’re going to have some teething issues. That’s understandable. We’ve always got to massage the event to get it where we want it, but this team has worked pretty hard. They’ve tried to get feedback constantly on what are we doing right, what do we need to look out for. They’ve done a ton of grinding to make sure this surface is in as good of shape as possible.

“There’s been no expense spared, but you can’t foresee everything. I have no idea how it’s going to race. I think typically when you look at a circuit that seems simple on paper, people tend to think it’s not going to be an exciting race, or challenging. I find the opposite always happens when we think that way. Watch it be the most exciting, chaotic, entertaining race.

Newgarden won the last two pole positions at Belle Isle’s 2.35-mile layout and hopes to continue the momentum while avoiding any post-Brickyard letdown.

“I love this is an opportunity for us to get something right quicker than anyone else,” he said. “A new track is always exciting from that standpoint. I feel I’m in a different spot. I’m pretty run down. I’m really trying to refocus and gain some energy back for tomorrow. Which I’ll have time to today, which is great.

“I don’t want that Indy 500 hangover. People always talk about it. They’ve always observed it. That doesn’t mean we have to win this weekend, but I’d like to leave here feeling like we had a really complete event, did a good job and had a solid finish leading into the summer. I want to win everywhere I go, but if we come out of here with a solid result and no mistakes, then probably everyone will be happy with it.”