Charlie Kimball's Blog

SUNDAY, MAY 28
RESULTS
Race: P25 (retired on lap 166 – mechanical)

RACE STATS
Finishing position: 25th
Starting position: 16th
Pit stops: 6
Average speed: 161.098 mph
Laps led: 5
Cautions: 11 for 50 laps total
Lead changes: 35 among 15 drivers
Championship standing: 20th

IN CK’S WORDS
“I’m really disappointed honestly – these guys deserved more than that. It’s just hard to take when you have a mechanical failure like that so close to the end. We were coming in that lap for our last stop of the day and I knew the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys were going to crush it in pit lane, and then we just had to go out and race for the front. The timing stand called a strategy the last quarter of the race that gave us a chance to win. We’d gone through some big struggles earlier in the race and the car wasn’t particularly good, but we got up front and she went like a rabbit. I’m just frustrated. This race means so much to all of us, but at the same time we’re just going to have to dig deep and find a whole other level for Detroit. There are just as many points available next weekend as there were this weekend. We’ll go out there and try to get the No. 83 Tresiba® Honda as many as we can.”

FROM PIT LANE

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

FRIDAY, MAY 26
RESULTS
Practice: P24, 224.372 mph
Total laps: 41

FROM PIT LANE

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

MONDAY, MAY 22
RESULTS
Practice: P17, 225.729 mph
Total laps: 119

IN CK’S WORDS
“I think we got a lot accomplished today with the No. 83 Tresiba® Honda. This practice session is always productive – it’s your last chance for a full practice to make big changes and still be able to test them out on track. It’s not as easy on Carb Day when everyone is trying to cram everything they need to get done in an one hour session. Early in the session we were having some issues with understeer and running in traffic, but we made some changes that corrected the problem. Overall the car felt good on long runs. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys have given me a good racecar, so I’m anxious to get back out there on Carb Day for the last time before the green flag.”

FROM PIT LANE

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

SUNDAY, MAY 21
RESULTS
Qualifying: P16
Four-lap average: 229.956 mph
Lap one: 230.344 mph
Lap two: 230.675 mph
Lap three: 229.368 mph
Lap four: 229.444 mph

IN CK’S WORDS
“As I got into turn 2, the wind picked me up a little bit and the Novo Nordisk car kind of just took off toward the wall. It’s qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 – you don’t lift until you have to and I had to when I brushed the wall. I used the right rear to square the car up a little bit. Unfortunately from there the run was a little bit compromised. I feel really good about our racecar going into tomorrow’s practice, Carb Day, and the race next weekend. Even though qualifying matters, it is 500 miles around this place. I needed to make sure I brought home the car in one piece. I would’ve liked to have been over that 230 number – it feels pretty awesome when you see 230 mph as an average on your dash.”

FROM PIT LANE

Photo courtesy of LAT Photo USA

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

SATURDAY, MAY 20
RESULTS
Qualifying: P11
Four-lap average: 229.713 mph
Lap one: 230.210 mph
Lap two: 229.687 mph
Lap three: 229.503 mph
Lap four: 229.453 mph

IN CK’S WORDS
“The No. 83 Tresiba® Honda felt really good. I’m proud of the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys for giving me a car that could perform on a one-shot type of run like this, especially after the storm and sitting around stewing all day. My Honda engine engineer has done a really good job all week tuning the car in. We have no problem running two gears because we’ve worked the shifts a lot. Overall I’m pretty happy with my run. I don’t think the car had anything left to give and now we just need to turn our focus to tomorrow’s qualifying run. In the meantime, we’ll be thinking about Sebastien and hoping he’s OK.”

FROM PIT LANE

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

FRIDAY, MAY 19
RESULTS
Practice: P20, 230.335 mph
Non-tow: P10, 230.041 mph
Total laps: 41

IN CK’S WORDS
“During this last practice when you’re focused on qualifying, the car is definitely on edge. It gets light on downforce; the car moves around a lot. It can be interesting when the weather conditions change, but we found some speed in the car this afternoon after the rain came through. I’m happier with the car after the first couple of runs late this afternoon, so I think we were able to make some progress during the rain delay. Really, it will just come down to getting four really good laps out of the No. 83 Tresiba Honda tomorrow. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys will do everything they can to be sure it’s prepared. We’ll have all the speed secrets we can think of for the car, so we’ll see what we’ve got for 10 miles in qualifying tomorrow.”

FROM PIT LANE

Click here to view more photos, courtesy of LAT Photo USA.

THURSDAY, MAY 18
RESULTS
Practice: P7, 225.141 mph
Non-tow: P2, 224.601 mph
Total laps: 91

IN CK’S WORDS
“Overall it was just a really good day for the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team. We made a lot of progress on the race car then did a couple of qualifying runs at the end of the day. I’m pretty happy especially after not having a clear direction on Tuesday on where to put the car in traffic. We’ll see what the weather does for the next couple of days, and get ready for qualifying this weekend with the boost level tomorrow.”

FROM PIT LANE

Click here to view more photos, courtesy of LAT Photo USA.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 17
RESULTS
Practice: P9, 218.122 mph
Non-tow: P8, 218.122 mph
Total laps: 12

IN CK’S WORDS
“It’s always frustrating when you aren’t able to get a full day of track time here at IMS. We weren’t happy at the end of the day yesterday with the car in traffic, so we were hoping to work on that today but with the windy conditions we weren’t able to do that. We think we found the direction we need to go with the No. 83 Tresiba® Honda, but until we can run in traffic in conditions where I can feel the changes we’ve made to the car, the risk just isn’t worth the reward.”

FROM PIT LANE

TUESDAY, MAY 16
RESULTS
Practice: P19, 221.79 mph
Non-tow: P2, 221.21 mph
Total laps: 72

IN CK’S WORDS
“Overall, it was another decent day for the 83 crew. We ran a couple sets of new tires and ran a little bit in traffic. I’m definitely happier with the car working toward qualifying trim, as we take downforce out of it. I think we found some things that stabilized the problems today and worked on issues I was having yesterday afternoon. I feel good about these improvements, but we still have a little way to go in traffic. We can’t quite run as close to the other cars as we need to in order to run up front and make the pass.”

FROM PIT LANE

MONDAY, MAY 15
RESULTS
Practice: P18, 223.16 mph
Non-tow: P4, 221.59 mph
Total laps: 75 

IN CK’S WORDS
“We had a good first day in the No. 83 Tresiba Honda, just easing into practice for the 500. We ran quite a few laps, the most of everyone I think, and just worked on getting a solid foundation for the car. While there are still a few things we need to work on, rolling off the truck like that is a good start. The Honda guys have been just dialing things in. Around here you don’t want to do anything too drastic too quickly; it’s just so fast. Overall I feel really good about the day. We’ll work on making a few things better the next few days to really put some power behind it for qualifying this weekend.”

FROM PIT LANE