Charlie Kimball's Blog

SUNDAY, MARCH 12
RESULTS
Warm-up: P11, 1:03.1608
Race: P18

RACE STATS
Finishing position: 18th
Starting position: 9th
Pit stops: 4
Fastest lap: 88 of 110
Average speed: 90.938 mph
Cautions: 2, for 8 laps total
Lead changes: 8 among 5 drivers
Championship standing: 19th

IN CK’S WORDS
“I’m really frustrated. I think when you get run into the wall on the start like that it doesn’t help your day. It’s just disrespectful, but I’m glad to see the No. 83 crew fight back like they did – they never gave up. We came in and changed a tow rod and only went down about three laps I think and caught back up. We were able to get a couple laps back with all that pit stop change-over. The pace of the No. 83 Tresiba Honda was really good. All weekend the car has been quick. Balance was pretty good in the race – even with all the mayhem and damage we had. It’s frustrating to end up where we did – we had a much better car and weekend than that. A lot of what we dealt with, though, was out of our control from poor driving to disrespectful driving, but I think it was a learning experience that we can take a lot from. We’ll do some testing in the next few weeks and then get ready to head to Long Beach.”

FROM PIT LANE

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SATURDAY, MARCH 11
RESULTS
Practice 3: P12, 1:02.0345
Qualifying: P9, 1:01.6066

IN CK’S WORDS
“I’m disappointed with qualifying ninth. I think coming into the weekend, my goal was to qualify in the top 10 and finish in the top five. We’re obviously already hitting that goal with starting ninth, but after the last couple of days I think we’ve been faster than where we’re starting tomorrow. We had a problem with the first set of tires we were going to run in Q2 so I didn’t get a run on that. We had a little too much fuel and I didn’t get the lap. I feel badly for the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys because the car was better than ninth. These things happen and as Dario says, ‘it’s all in the recovery,’ so tomorrow we’ll be smart, have good clean pit stops, and go forward when we can.”

FROM PIT LANE

Click here for more photos, courtesy of LAT Photo USA and INDYCAR.

FRIDAY, MARCH 10
RESULTS
Practice 1: P8, 1:04.4071
Practice 2: P4, 1:02.8748

IN CK’S WORDS
“That’s a solid first day here on the streets of St. Petersburg. I’m pretty happy with P8 and P4. We need a little bit to catch our teammates. The Honda cars are obviously working really well, so we’ll how it goes tomorrow afternoon when the times really count during qualifying. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys were solid all day – quick on the changes here in pit lane. Eric (Cowdin) is doing a really good job giving me what I need to drive the car. This track is always a lot of fun, but I think it’s especially enjoyable this year with the repaving.”

FROM PIT LANE

Click here for more photos, courtesy of LAT Photo USA and INDYCAR.