Editor’s note: Sage Karam, a past champion in both the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda series who finished ninth in his first Indianapolis 500 with DRR in 2014 at age 19, will file a series of blogs for NBCSports.com this month. Here’s his fifth entry, after a tough race on Sunday with an accident just before halfway. You can read his first, second, third and fourth blogs here. He’ll run the No. 24 Gas Monkey Energy Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold - Kingdom Racing.
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Well, this is my last blog for the 100th Indy 500 and I felt this would be a celebration of a great day.
Unfortunately, it ended way too soon.
After the Monday practice and the Carb Day one-hour session, I was so pumped up about our No. 24 Gas Monkey Energy Chevrolet. I could put the car pretty much anywhere I wanted and could pass our guys fairly easily.
In fact, the car felt so car on Carb Day that we parked it early in the practice. The Dreyer & Reinbold – Kingdom Racing crew, led by lead engineer Jeff Britton and chief mechanic Brian Goslee, had prepared a great car for the race. I was disappointed with my qualifying effort. That day we just had too much downforce in the car for qualifying. So, we had to start in the 23rd position, the middle of the eighth row.
It’s wasn’t great, but I know it was a long race too.
The morning of race day is always busy. You have media interviews, suite appearances, photos with sponsors and other activities. And this year, with Gas Monkey Energy as our primary sponsor, we had the “Fast N Loud” TV crew from the Discovery Channel following the team. Gas Monkey Garage co-principal Richard Rawlings was at the race and he is the star of the “Fast N Loud” show. It was fun to have Richard and his friends at the Indy 500. I think he really enjoyed it too.
The tradition of the Indy 500 is like no other auto race. It’s Memorial Day weekend and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway salutes our troops and veterans. It’s great tribute to them. Then you have songs like America the Beautiful, Taps, the National Anthem and, of course, “Back Home in Indiana.” My favorite song at Indy.
I knew at the start of the race that I didn’t want to be too aggressive. Just wanted to settle in and get a good rhythm early. And the car felt similar to last Monday and Carb Day.
I knew I could pick off cars one-by-one since our race setup felt so good. And that is what began to happen. The car had a little understeer or push in the early stages of the first stint. But I could manage it with my “in-cockpit” tools like the weight jacker. That shifts weight to one side to the other to help the handling of the race car.
I never really forced the issue in the turns of passes but I was 15th after 23 laps. It was a good start from 23rd. The team added a half-turn of front wheel on the first pit stop to help the understeer. In the second stint, the car felt great. I could run up on other cars and make the pass. By lap 45, I sat in 12th and was looking for just a bit better handling. On the third pit stop, we added another half-turn of front wing.
Now, the car was fast and I knew it. I wanted to pass people. On lap 75, I moved to 11th, then on lap 80 to 10th. The next lap I got to ninth past Scott Dixon, followed by eighth over Tony Kanaan at lap 84, and seventh over Mikhail Aleshin on lap 85. But lap 92, I went by Carlos Munoz for sixth.
Man, I knew I had a great car. Then next lap, I got around Townsend Bell for fifth. Josef (Newgarden) checked up out of turn four and Townsend and I tried to go wide. I think I had a little nose on Townsend. I’m sure he knew I was there and I thought Townsend would back out of the throttle and I could slide by on the high side. But Townsend’s car bumped mine and I slid into the gray area by the wall. I got sideways and thought I saved it. But it kept sliding and I clobbered the wall.
I’m more upset than hurt. I banged up my right knee a little. But we had a terrific car today. It was so fast. I could drive past everyone I came up to. The Gas Monkey Energy DRR-Kingdom Racing crew worked their tails off. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t put blame on anyone. Just a racing thing.
This is a hard one for myself and the whole team. We had a fast car and maybe a chance to win the race. I just wish I hadn’t run into turn one side by side. Again, it was another great experience with this team. They gave me a super car for the race. But I’ll be back here again next year. There’s nothing like the Indy 500.
