He rates some tracks higher than others, and Pocono Raceway – the site of this weekend’s ABC Supply 500, the next-to-last round of the Verizon IndyCar Series championship – is near the top of the list. “The last oval of the year is definitely a big race for us”. He went on to have a successful career in Formula 1 and IndyCar before retiring from open-wheel racing in 1994.
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He’s also dating another IndyCar driver’s daughter.
He will get his shot on Sunday in the ABC Supply 500.
“I got to meet the judges, I got to meet JLo of course, which she’s a very handsome woman”, Karam said with a giggle.
“Go down and actually watch the cars as they exit Turn 3… those guys are working their tails off, and I don’t think the drivers get almost the amount of respect that they deserve because these cars aren’t as easy to drive as a lot of people think. It’s such a challenge, it’s so fun, presents good racing”. Mid-Ohio and Auto Club Speedway victor Graham Rahal was down in 11 place. “We were pretty close in qualifying”.
Jody had more bad news – “The Karamo” is no more.
Another Nazareth native slotted in behind the No. 27 machine, 20-year-old Sage Karam.
But as an advisor for Chip Ganassi’s racing teams and a part-time television commentator, he still has his finger on the pulse of the sport.
Karam was in line to top Kimball but his plan was thwarted when fellow rookie Stefano Coletti crashed in turn three and eventually damaging both sides of the No. 4 KV Racing Technology auto. “I just had to really pedal it and save it. To regather it and still have one more lap to go … it was a long run”.
“It’s unfortunate that we have given back some points over the last few races”, he added. “I think he’s a tremendous talent, for sure”.
He can hire a dog sitter from nearby – more than 200 friends and family are expected to attend Sunday’s race, the first IndyCar race at the track for the driver from Nazareth, Pennsylvania. He’s been shut out of victory lane since June 2011 at Iowa.
“He doesn’t care about making friends”, Andretti said.
IndyCar made its return to the Tricky Triangle in July 2013 after a 24-year hiatus and the 28-year-old driver started off the weekend with a bang by shattering the old track qualifying record to sit on the pole for the inaugural Pocono IndyCar 400.
“We’ve had a bit of misfortune with mechanical failures this year”.
“Quite honestly, I think Honda definitely had the better fuel mileage in ’13, but that was with the single turbo”, he said. “I went into (turn) one and the balance maybe wasn’t exactly what I wanted or wasn’t expecting”.
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“It was a long, hard struggle, but now we’ve got here”.
