Sage Karam is still just 22, but concedes he has a more enlightened perspective about racing in the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on May 27.
The Nazareth, Pennsylvania native, announced today as Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s driver for the fourth time in the “500,” recalls how he arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014 for his team and Verizon IndyCar Series debut.
“I think I went in a few times to the ‘500’ with a lot of pressure on myself and just thinking, ‘Oh, I can win this,’ ‘I’ve got to win this,’” Karam said. “Now I know I have a team and I know I have a car and I can win this race, but first I’ve just got to get it to those last few laps and once I’m there, then the gloves will come off. I think when I was younger, I thought the gloves came off from the start of the race unfortunately.
“I’ve changed a lot mentally and physically and even just the way I present myself. When I was 18, 19, 20 in that race, I was walking around with too much swagger and stuff like that. I’ve really toned things down. I’ve really got more focused and a lot more serious about everything and, yeah, this is the most prepared and most serious I’m approaching a race.”
His first of four previous “500” starts was actually his best result, ninth, as the rookie won the “Hard Charger Award.” But misfortune since — he’s placed 32nd twice and 28th — has taught him the importance of patience.
“I’ve had a rough go the last few years, like last year with something happening with the battery and then two years in a row before that having some issues on track,” he said. “I had a really strong rookie season. I think I’ve just got to go in there now with the mentality of needing to finish the race and finishing well. In order to finish well, you’ve got to first finish.
“I had that mentality last year. I think if people saw what I was doing last year, I was really not taking the risk I would usually take. I was just kind of cruising around and staying out of trouble and things were going really, really well. I think I was running a really good race last year. I’m going to go in with that similar mindset this year. I’ve learned a lot over the years, not really having to put your car in positions you don’t need to early on in the race. You just want to get it to the last 20 laps and then from there it turns into a sprint race.”
DRR owner Dennis Reinbold said Karam will benefit from having a teammate in May with that second driver expected to be officially named in two weeks. The team announced that WIX Filters will serve as a chief technical partner on Karam’s No. 24 Chevrolet.
Reinbold’s family has a lengthy IMS history dating back to the 1920s with legendary car builder Floyd “Pop” Dreyer. Reinbold, Dreyer’s grandson, has been an Indy 500 car owner since 1999 with four top-10 finishes including a best result of fourth with Oriol Servia in 2012. His 36 “500” car entries have also included rides for Townsend Bell, Paul Tracy, Davey Hamilton and Justin Wilson as well as Al Unser Jr. and Buddy Rice, the latter two having won the race with other teams.
“I grew up right there about a mile away from Turn 1 and could hear the cars when I was a kid out riding on my Schwinn (bicycle) and doing races in the church parking lot,” Reinbold said.
An IMS visit on Tuesday stirred Reinbold’s passion.
“It’s a special, special place for me,” he said. “I was a fan first and foremost and I’m still a fan. You go out there and experience the whole majesty of the place and it’s pretty amazing.”
Karam, a 2013 champion in the developmental Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires series, will be making his 16th career start in the Verizon IndyCar Series. His most extensive experience came in 2015 with Chip Ganassi Racing, when he had 12 starts and finished a career-best third at Iowa.
He competed in sports car enduro racing last year, but the “500” will be his first race this year.
“I’ve learned a lot about taking care of equipment and getting it to the end of the race,” Karam said. “I didn’t have any crashes last year in races. I think that’s going to parlay into Indy as well. I’ve learned to be smarter behind the wheel and more focused.”
Karam is hopeful a strong showing can lead to other opportunities, perhaps more races with DRR. He’s confident this will be the year he benefits from past experiences to produce his best result.
“I really believe that we'll be towards the front,” he said. “I think we go in —being it's my only race, we go in with a different mindset than other teams and drivers. We go through our check plans and everything a lot more slow than other teams because I've got to get comfortable with the car, and now we've got to learn the car, and it takes a little bit more time, and especially only just having one car. So you know, it takes time to get comfortable, but I think after like the second day of testing I'm back in my rhythm and the team is feeling good, and then we start working with traffic and figuring out our race car.
“That's the thing I really love about this team is we focus a lot on our car for Sunday. We don't really put a lot of effort into going out and just setting the raw speed for qualifying. We spend most of our month just focusing on what our car is going to be for Sunday. I think that pays dividends for the end of the month for us and shows every year how we can qualify 20th or 30th, whatever we've qualified in those three years, and we're always inside the top 10 at some point in the race, and it's pretty early on.”