Charlie Kimball's Blog

SUNDAY, MAY 27
RESULTS
Race: P18

RACE STATS
Finishing position: 18th
Starting position: 15th
Pit stops: 7
Average speed: 166.295 mph
Cautions: 7 for 41 laps total
Lead changes: 30 among 15 drivers
Championship standing: 20th

DEBRIEF
“Major props to everyone on the Carlin team – they’ve worked so hard since November to put this program together. To come out and qualify two cars in the top 20 and finish the race with two cars in one piece in the top 22 in their first Indianapolis 500 is impressive. I’m just really proud of these guys; everyone really did a great job all month. I’m excited to come back next year with everything we learned this year both in qualifying and in the race. We will definitely do some things differently but that’s the thing about the first time, you learn so much and we’ll just keep moving forward from here. We’re looking forward to another 100 points up for grab next weekend in Detroit.”

VIEWS

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FRIDAY, MAY 25
RESULTS
Practice 9: 224.712 mph

DEBRIEF
“It was a ready good final practice. The hour on Carb Day is all about checking the boxes and making sure we are ready to go for Sunday. Reliability in the car has been rock solid all month. That didn’t change today. The speed is really good in the car. If we get clean air and get out front, we’re going to be pretty solid. The guys did a lot of pit stop practice this week and we’re pretty happy with that. Overall, we tuned on it and right at the end of the session when the track was the hottest and probably the slickest, we felt like we had the best car of the week. That’s the right time to peak heading into the race on Sunday. Excited to show off what this Carlin team has done this whole month of May and this year so far. Everyone from Novo Nordisk to Chevy and Firestone are great partners. It’s been a great month. We’ve done an incredible job as a team and it’s been fun to watch this team enjoy the Indy 500 experience. I can’t wait to see their faces on race day.”

VIEWS

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MONDAY, MAY 21
RESULTS
Practice 8: P4, 224.582 mph
No-tow: P3, 220.463 mph

DEBRIEF
“We got through a lot of really good work today on our race car. I think we have the No. 23 Novo Nordisk Chevrolet in a really good position in race trim. We seem to be fast on our own and can run pretty well in traffic. We worked a lot on fuel mileage and making sure we are where we want to be with that. I know Team Chevy brought good horsepower and good fuel mileage for next weekend, so we’ll clean up a few little items to get ready for Carb Day and make sure we’re happy with what we’ve got to go race 500 miles.”

VIEWS

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SUNDAY, MAY 20
RESULTS
Qualifying: P15, 226.657 mph (4-lap average)

DEBRIEF
“All week we’ve been trying to be as methodical as possible and just making sure we were prepared for the stress and the pressure of yesterday. Having gone through the qualifying process yesterday we doubled our experience for today. We were just trying to maximize and optimize what we had and not take any big risks – really just trying to be smart. The No. 23 Novo Nordisk Chevrolet moved around more than I was expecting, but nothing particularly uncomfortable on that run. I’m just so proud of these Carlin guys and where they started before the winter to where they are now with two cars in the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile race – just a huge credit to them.”

VIEWS

Photo courtesy of LAT Photo USA

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SATURDAY, MAY 19
RESULTS
Qualifying: P25, 225.752 mph (4-lap average)

DEBRIEF
“I’m just so proud of the whole team for how much work they’ve put into this INDYCAR program and especially into making sure that both Carlin cars qualified for next Sunday. You know, we stopped a little early during practice yesterday and the conditions today were significantly different, so we were a bit worried about making sure we adjusted to those factors. I think we were hoping to get a bit more speed out of the No. 23 Novo Nordisk Chevrolet, but we’re all just over the moon that we made it into the show. We definitely have some work to do tonight after we comb through some data from this afternoon and hopefully we’ll have a shot at moving up even further tomorrow.”

VIEWS

Photo courtesy of LAT Photo USA

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FRIDAY, MAY 18
RESULTS
Practice 5: P18, 228.524 mph
No-tow: P16, 227.406 mph

DEBRIEF
“Today was about being smart and methodical as we trimmed the car out to qualifying spec with the higher boost level for Fast Friday. The Carlin boys have done an incredible job preparing for this week and really the whole month. They haven’t put a foot wrong with the car and we’ve been able to make progress all week each and every time we go on track. I have a lot of confidence about where we are heading into this qualifying weekend. I’m excited for what tomorrow and Sunday are going to bring for the No. 23 Novo Nordisk Chevrolet.”

VIEWS

Photo courtesy of INDYCAR

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THURSDAY, MAY 17
RESULTS
Practice 4: P21, 223.324 mph
No-tow: P3, 223.208 mph

DEBRIEF
“It was a good day for the team. We were laser-focused today on qualifying setup and making sure that we were prepared for Saturday and Sunday, in case the weather throws off practice tomorrow. We focused a little on race setup yesterday, but we’ve made single car pace our priority for the majority of the week. Hopefully the weather is okay tomorrow and we can see what we really have for qualifying in terms of pace for the No. 23 Novo Nordisk Chevrolet.”

VIEWS

Photo courtesy of LAT Photo USA

WEDNESDAY, MAY 16
RESULTS
Practice 3: P5, 225.887 mph
No-tow: P6, 221.705 mph

DEBRIEF
“Another solid day in the No. 23 at the Speedway. This place is just such a challenge because you don’t always know where you are, relative to others speed-wise. The big numbers come from big tows. But at the same time, we were pretty happy with our pace and speed out on our own. Going into the next couple of days, on Friday we’ll have an eye toward Saturday, with the high booster level and qualifying spec. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll work on that. This afternoon, we did some race stuff. We have some ground to cover and could make some progress there, but I know that we’ve learned a lot. We’ll apply it tomorrow morning and start looking looking at the weekend’s setup in the afternoon.”

VIEWS

Photo courtesy of Spacesuit Media

TUESDAY, MAY 15
RESULTS
Practice 1: P20, 218.968 mph
Practice 2: P7, 223.921 mph

DEBRIEF
“It was a solid first day, despite dodging some weather and a couple of things here and there. We made some really good progress with the No. 23 Novo Nordisk Chevrolet and I have a lot of confidence going into the rest of the week. We still have a long laundry list of test items to work through, but we seem to be addressing the big concerns. Now we’ll start focusing on the smaller things and start trying to find some lap time.”

VIEWS