Sage Karam Races To Fulfill Reinbold’s Wishful Vision

Sage Karam.   [Andy Clary Photo]

by Allan Brewer

“We’re a race team,” said Sage Karam, “not a qualifying team,” after the Pennsylvania product put his Dreyer & Reinbold Dallara/Chevrolet into the 2017 Indianapolis 500 field with a “good-enough for now” speed of 227.943 mph over the 2.5 mile Brickyard oval on Saturday. He’s off to a great start so far, having posted the fifth-fastest lap of all competitors on Tuesday of this first and only week of qualifying for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The 22-year-old says he feels at ease cruising around the track at 220-plus miles per hour, despite incurring a heavy impact in Indy’s Turn 1 the last time he took a lap here. Even more impressive, this is his first time back behind the wheel of an IndyCar since last year’s crash.

“It took me like 10-15 laps to go flat through Turn 1 again,” Karam said. “But I knew once I got my feet back under me, I was going to be the same old Sage again.”

To underscore his commitment to getting to the front and staying there, Karam has gotten some “ink done” on his right forearm: an outline tattoo of the famous “Wing and Wheel” logo that adorns the entrance and many of the marketing material for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The “wings” of the tattoo are intentionally left blank, according to Karam, “so there’s a spot to put the years I win the Indy 500.”

For the fourth time in five years, Nazareth, PA’s favorite son and team owner Dennis Reinbold are working together to bring DRR to victory lane. Karam, who finished a disappointing thirty-second with the team in 2016, returned earlier this month to the Indianapolis-based outfit for a one-off race and now has set his sights on making a powerful statement of professional progress at the 101st Indianapolis 500.

“I think this year we’ve learned from that experience,” said Karam. “We’re going to calm down, we’re going to get to the end of the race, and if I get there, I’m going to be there (at the front).”

If that sounds like a pipe-dream, consider that the powerfully-built racer has been tutored by three-time Indy 500 champion Dario Franchitti.

“Dario helped me take some big steps, inside and outside of the car: things like making time for all the obligations like media, training, studying videotape and working in the engineering office,” said Karam of his 2015 season with the Ganassi Racing team. “When things got tough, Dario would talk to me about his first year in the sport, and offered me life-lessons about driving, and racing, and the world.”

Karam is still involved in sports car racing with veteran racer and champion Scott Pruett in a custom-built Lexus GTD machine he drives in the IMSA sports car championship series during the rest of the racing season.

Allan Brewer

Allan Brewer covers IndyCar and other racing series for RacingNation.com. Allan is a fixture at the race track, armed with keyboard and camera, eager to take you inside open-wheel sport where the news is being made. He comes to RacingNation.com with multiple professional awards from the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AWWRBA). He began his motorsports writing career at FastMachines.com; and solely published IndyProRacer.com and A1GP.com, two award-winning websites for open-wheel racing’s junior leagues, prior to becoming IndyCar correspondent at Motorsport.com. He has also covered Formula 1, NASCAR, Formula E, the Indy Lights Series and its predecessor Indy Pro Series, NHRA events and major auto shows. His major interest outside of competition is automotive technology and its application to the cars we drive every day on the public highways.

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