Charlie Kimball's Blog

Sunday, March 30
6:30 p.m.
Starting and finishing 20th wasn’t the plan today, but I learned  a lot throughout the race. It was encouraging that we had that much pace in the car but it was obviously disappointing that we had some mechanical issues early in the race. We lost quite a bit of ground dealing with those throttle issues. Overall though the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen crew really fought hard today and had some really clean pit stops. I have complete faith in the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew and the Chevrolet team that they’ll figure out the issue we faced today and get us ready to have a great race in Long Beach.

11:30 a.m.
We had a pretty good warm-up session. We went out right at the green flag and immediately came in for a few pit stop practices–nice job by the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys. We also worked on a few different things for fuel which will help with our strategy later today. As we get going, we’ll just focus on consistency to get the best result possible.

9:15 a.m.
Good morning… it’s RACE DAY! I love saying that, especially after a long off-season. It’s a beautiful day in St. Petersburg. Unlike the past few days, the sun is shining and the sky is blue. So that means we’ll have to plan for different conditions for the race today than we were dealing with for practice and qualifying. We’ll be smart at the start of the race–it’s always a bit crazy in Turn One here so we’ll definitely try to stay away from that. Then we’ll just do our best to stay on the right strategy and work our way up!

Warm-up begins at 9:45 a.m. Eastern… catch live timing and scoring HERE.

Saturday, March 29
8:45 p.m.
Qualifying didn’t go exactly according to plan, but the whole No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen crew is excited for the race tomorrow. We are a resilient group and I know we’ll bounce back. We’ll make some changes tonight and develop a plan for tomorrow and be ready to go at green flag.

Just finished up with a really great dinner with some Novo Nordisk and Ganassi friends. Always enjoy spending time with them during race weekends. Now, it’s off to bed! Thanks for the support.

3:40 p.m.
IndyCar just sent out an update… if the weather cooperates, we’ll qualify at 5 p.m. Eastern. Thanks to all of the fans here in St. Pete for sticking it out with us! And thanks to those at home for following along. The No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car will be ready to go!

2:10 p.m.
Well, we are definitely on a weather delay here in St. Pete. We’ve had some severe weather alerts in the area so fans and teams have taken cover while we wait it out. Firestone tires are the best in the business, but I’m not sure even their rain tires would help us out too much right now! Assuming we don’t get to qualify today, tomorrow’s race will be set by the 2013 entrant points. So, we’d start 10th. For now, the delay gives us more time with the engineers and team.

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to read this piece from today’s Tampa Bay Times on the relationship between drivers and engineers. Thanks to Jim for talking to me and my engineer Brad!

11:45 a.m.
Unfortunately we didn’t quite have the right setup for morning practice but I think with Ryan topping the chart, we’ll have some good data to look at and learn from before qualifying. The weather is a big unknown at the moment–the forecast is showing rain and storms for this afternoon, so we’ll have to adjust as the time comes.

Check out live timing and scoring HERE for qualifying at 2 p.m. Eastern. I’m in Group 2 for Round 1.

8:30 a.m.
Starting out day two well-rested and ready to go for qualifying! We’ll be in group two along with Dixon, so we’ll be able to work together there a bit. Hopefully with the rain the track comes back grip-wise. As we get closer to qualifying later today, we’ll be paying close attention to the weather forecast and see how that plays out. For qualifying we’ll work to max the alternate tires and make the most of what we have.

Follow along all day via Race Control at IndyCar.com!

Friday, March 28
4:00 p.m.
We had a really good first day. The No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car made a lot of progress and we got some great data from our teammates. I have full confidence that we’ll come back tomorrow strong.

For now, I have a pretty open afternoon which means more time in the engineering office!

12:45 p.m.
Grabbing a quick lunch before we head back out!

We didn’t quite get everything accomplished that we wanted to in practice 1, but I’m confident moving forward that we’ll be making gains in practice 2. We came back and looked at the data for the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car, as well as the 8, 9 and 10 cars, so we have some good information to go on. We’ll go out for this next session looking to move up the time sheet and learn for qualifying tomorrow.

Be sure to follow @racewithinsulin on Twitter–my Pit Lane Reporter (PLR) is updating for me while I’m on the track!

9:20 a.m.
Good morning! Just about to get going here in St. Pete. After a few interviews yesterday afternoon, my engineer and I took a walk around the track to get some visuals for this weekend. We had a good meeting this morning, going over procedures and protocols for this season. All in all, I think we’re in good shape!

Live timing and scoring for both practice sessions (10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Eastern) is available at IndyCar.com. Enjoy!

Thursday, March 27
1:00 p.m.
Good afternoon from St. Petersburg! I made a visit to WTSP-TV Studio 10 this morning to chat with host Jerome Ritchey. He closely follows IndyCar racing so he’s always a lot of fun to talk to before we get the race weekend started. To check out the segment, click here.

After a quick breakfast, I’ve been spending time at the track with my engineers before the track walk later today. We always say it’s a long off-season, but with it being such a tough winter in Indy, I’m more than ready to be back at a race track. That said, the whole Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team worked really hard throughout the off-season at the shop, in the gym, in the engineering office, to get us ready. With the additions of Ryan and Tony, we have just that much more experience and data to draw from, along with Scott’s championship-winning team. It’s been great working with Team Chevy in just the few tests we’ve had so far, and I think we can only build from here. I’ve had my ups and downs here at St. Pete, but we’ve always had the speed. We’ll work on getting the right setup for qualifying from the start, and I know the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car will be fast during the race.

Thanks for the support throughout the off-season! Can’t wait to meet you at the track this season. Don’t forget to follow @racewithinsulin on Twitter… my Pit Lane Reporter (PLR) is back for updates during on-track sessions!

Here’s our race weekend schedule (all times Eastern):

Friday, March 28
10-10:45 a.m. Practice
2-2:45 p.m. Practice

Saturday, March 29
10-10:45 a.m. Practice
2-3:10 p.m. Qualifying
4:30-5:30 p.m. Autograph session (in the INDYCAR Fan Village)

Sunday, March 30
9:45-10:15 a.m. Warm-up
3 p.m. Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race (live on ABC)

All sessions and the race are broadcast by IMS Radio Network in conjunction with live timing and scoring HERE and via the INDYCAR 14 app. The IMS Radio Network race broadcast also is on member stations, Sirius 209 and XM 209.