Why IndyCar needs Sage Karam in the series full-time

By Asher Fair | Jan 13, 2018

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 05: Sage Karam, driver of the #8 Lexar Chevrolet, looks on during practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 5, 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway) /

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FORT WORTH, TX – JUNE 05: Sage Karam, driver of the #8 Lexar Chevrolet (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway) /

2015 season (continued)

The following weekend, the series took to the streets of Belle Isle. In qualifying for the second race, Karam was slated to take the pole position. However, IndyCar then canceled the qualifying session due to inclement weather. The time required make the session official was nearly but not fully completed, so the grid was set by entrant points. Karam would line up in the back.

Karam then finished in 12th place at Texas and 5th place, a new career-high result, at Fontana after leading some laps. But had this crash, which is shown below, not happened, Karam may have actually won the race, which featured an IndyCar record 80 lead changes.

This crash took place on the final lap of the race, and Karam was on much newer tires than three of the four drivers who finished ahead of him. The only driver ahead of him whose tires were as new as his were was Marco Andretti, who, like Karam, hails from Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

At Milwaukee, Karam qualified in a career-high 3rd place, but he finished in 19th place after another disappointing DNF. At Iowa, Karam’s aggressive driving style, which has been compared to that of Paul Tracy, netted him a career-high 3rd place finish, although it came at the disapproval of some other drivers, particularly Ed Carpenter.