Team ’15 season preview: Focus on points, pointers

Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Part I

The cast: Drivers – Charlie Kimball, Sage Karam. Chief engineers – Brad Goldberg (Kimball), Eric Cowdin (Karam)

Twitter: @racewithinsulin, @SageKaram, @CGRTeams

The cars: Nos. 8 (Karam) and 83 (Kimball) Chevrolet

Snapshot: Kimball enters his fifth Verizon IndyCar Series season driving the No. 83 car with primary sponsorship from global diabetes care company Novo Nordisk. Kimball, of Camarillo, Calif., was diagnosed in 2007 with type 1 diabetes. He returned to racing in 2008 – claiming a podium finish in his first race. … He received a Jefferson Award for public service in 2012 for spreading the word about diabetes awareness and management. … He turned 30 on Feb. 20. … In September, he married Kathleen Thompson in Indianapolis. … His father, Gordon, worked with several Indy car and Formula One teams. … Karam made his Verizon IndyCar Series debut in the 2014 Indianapolis 500 in a partnership between Chip Ganassi Racing Teams and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. He qualified 31st and finished ninth – the second-highest finish by a rookie. … Karam, of Nazareth, Pa., turned 20 on March 5.

The stats: Kimball led the Verizon IndyCar Series in positions advanced relative to his starting position in 2014. He recorded a best finish of third at Belle Isle2, moving up 17 positions, and had 10 top-10 finishes overall. … He had a late April through early June stretch of five top-10 finishes in six races, and had a four-race stretch from mid-July through early August of consecutive top-10 finishes. … Season-best qualifying of sixth came in two of the final three races – both on ovals.

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