26th Place Finish in No Way Reflected His Performance on the Track
INDIANAPOLIS, IN.: For Sage Karam, this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was about something familiar and something new. The 26-year old climbed into a stock car for the very first time, driving the No. 31 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing.
Venturing from the open wheel world to the land of stock cars is never an easy transition. History has shown that the task is quite difficult, no matter how much talent the driver has. One thing that Karam had going for him is familiarity with the track.
Karam has competed in three IndyCar races on the IMS road course, and all of them came within the past year. Driving for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Karam completed 237 of the 240 laps with the part-time team. The experience is something he could lean on to a certain extent, but not everything translates.
The biggest difference between these two disciplines is the weight of the car. The IndyCar is much lighter and has exceptional braking, while the heavier Xfinity cars require more time and distance to hit the braking zones just right. At a place like this, with 14 turns, Karam realized that would be the most important thing for him to work on.
The problem was there wasn’t much time to do that. With just one practice session on Friday, Karam got right to work. When practice came to an end, Karam finished in 12th position out of the 44 cars that took to the track. It was an impressive debut for Karam, but he was just getting started.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning, with many teams and drivers facing the harsh reality that they could fail to make the race. Karam qualified 18th and set his sights on the afternoon race. After the first stage of the race, Karam found himself inside the top five.
The whole race was about gaining experience and learning on the fly. After the race he acknowledged how he had to rely on his spotters much more than he does while driving an IndyCar. “It was hard,” Karam stated. “I was concentrating a lot on what they were saying, where other cars were but also concentrating on driving because it was just something so new to me. I came into this race with like 15 laps under my belt, and I wish I had one more practice before qualifying or the race.”
Just when it looked like a top-ten finish was in the bag, Karam was penalized for speeding just before the final restart of the race. He was set to restart in eighth but was forced to drop to the rear of the field. Karam still managed to overcome that obstacle as well, advancing all the way back up to 12th before getting nudged off course by Justin Allgaier.
It went from bad to worse at that point, when he reported that the engine was cutting in and out. He ultimately lost power completely, which ended his day four laps from the finish. The 26th place finish in no way reflected his performance on the track, but that is just how racing goes sometimes.
The challenge of taking on a new animal is something that Karam embraces, partly because that is just what he does. “I’ve driven a lot of cars in my career,” he said. He began in Indy Lights, where he won the championship after winning three of the twelve races. He has 17 career starts in the IMSA WeatherTech series, to go along with his 24 races in IndyCar over the past eight years.
The NASCAR world is new to him, but something that Karam hopes becomes more regular. “I’ll tell you what, I had a lot of fun, and I’d love to do it again,” he said with a smile. He has gained some valuable insight from Jimmie Johnson, as the seven-time Cup champion has offered bits and pieces of information. Johnson understands his situation well, as he spent most of last season picking drivers’ brains about IndyCar to help with his transition.
While the result is not what Sage or the team was hoping for, they can take solace in the fact that they surpassed many people’s expectations. Considering the hurdles that they had to clear, it was a great weekend at the World’s Greatest Racecourse.
