Why IndyCar needs Sage Karam in the series full-time

Asher Fair

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)

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MAY 5: Indy Car driver Sage Karam (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

Sage Karam has never driven a full IndyCar season. But the series could definitely use the 22-year-old American now more than ever.

Of drivers who have had full-time rides in IndyCar, Conor Daly comes to mind when it comes to drivers without a full-time ride for 2018 who deserve one. But when it comes to all IndyCar drivers without a full-time ride, 2013 Indy Lights Series champion Sage Karam comes to mind as the most deserving driver. In fact, he is a driver who IndyCar needs.

With so much proven talent and ability, which we be discussed in depth later in this article, Karam is not a driver who should be racing just one race every season, which is what he has done in three of the last four seasons.

As a high school senior in May of 2014, 19-year-old Sage Karam wasn’t at his high school prom. But to be honest, I’m not sure how many high schools seniors would be at their high school prom if they had the opportunity to do what Karam was busy doing — qualifying for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500.

After qualifying in 31st place for the race in the #22 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet, Karam caught the eye of IndyCar teams around the paddock when he moved through the field, up 22 positions to be exact, on race day en route to a 9th place finish just 3.2848 seconds behind race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.

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

2015 season

In the 2015 IndyCar season, Sage Karam earned himself a ride with Chip Ganassi Racing as the driver of the #8 Chevrolet. He would go on to race in 12 of the season’s 16 races.

Although Karam had just two top 10 finishes in his 12 races and he has just three top 10 finishes in his 15 career IndyCar races, these statistics don’t tell the full story. I’ll tell the full story and explain why it means that Karam needs a full-time ride in the series in the very near future.

In the 2015 season, Karam experienced early struggles. He finished no higher than 18th place in the first three races of the season. But when the Indianapolis 500 rolled around, Karam was one of the fastest driver in practice.

But a rather poor qualifying session, which placed him in 23rd on the starting grid, did him in, as he was involved in a first-turn crash with Takuma Sato, who took him out after trying to pass both he and defending race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay on the outside of three-wide toward the back of the pack.

Karam would take to social media after his disappointing DNF to say that he had received “Japanese takeout” when he “didn’t even order” it, referencing, of course, Sato’s Japanese descent.

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.

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

2015 season (continued)

After a four-race stint of oval track races during which Karam racked his first career second row start, his first career top 5 finish and his first career podium finished, he had lots of momentum and it looked like him landing a future full-time ride in the very near future would be a no-brainer.

But at Mid-Ohio, the tough breaks continued for Karam. He was criticized for blocking Graham Rahal during his qualifying run, forcing Rahal, who was in the championship battle, to start in the middle of the pack as opposed to up front on race day.

On race day, Karam worked his way inside the top 10. But near the end of the race, he spun out, and a caution flag flew as a result of it end of the race and bringing out a caution. This caution flag ironically benefited Graham Rahal, as he had just come into the pits. Meanwhile, Juan Pablo Montoya, the race leader and Rahal’s chief championship competitor, had not yet done so and had to do so under caution. Rahal would refer to Karam as “his buddy” after winning the race at his home race track.

But Karam was still not off the hook. As a result of the implications his spin had on the race results, and more notably the championship standings, Montoya was ticked off. Rahal had closed to within nine points of him, and Scott Dixon had also closed to within 34 points of him.

Montoya, and many others I might add, seemed to believe that Karam spun on purpose because Dixon, his teammate and also a championship contender, had just come into the pits. So he also benefited from Karam’s spin. In fact, the point swing between he and Montoya as a result of that spin ended up being the different in Dixon winning his fourth career championship over Montoya, who led the standings after each race except the season finale at Sonoma.

"“Karma is a b****.” –Juan Pablo Montoya"

(Yes, Karma, not Karam.)

FORT WORTH, TX – JUNE 06: Sage Karam, driver of the #8 Lexar Chevrolet (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)

2015 season (continued)

The next race was at Pocono, which is Karam’s home race, as it is only a few miles from his hometown of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. While he qualified in 20th place, he found himself in the lead with 21 laps to go.

It seemed as though whenever Karam was near the front of the field throughout the race, NBC Sports Network race announcers Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy would always refer to Karam as the “future face of the IndyCar Series”.

But exiting turn 1 in a rather odd spot with under 21 laps remaining in the 200-lap, 500-mile race, Karam spun out and crashed nose-first into the wall, ending what could have been a great race for him.

Even worse was what happened to Justin Wilson as a result of Karam’s crash. The nose cone of Karam’s car bounced around the track in the moments after the wreck, and as Wilson drove by, the nose cone hit his helmet, instantly knocking him out. His car would hit the inside retaining wall before he was removed from the car and airlifted to the Lehigh Valley Hospital.

The following day, Monday, August 24th, 2015, Wilson succumbed to his injuries at the age of 37.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MAY 29: Oriol Servia, driver of the #77 Schmidt Peterson with Marioti Racing Honda Dallara, drives through a field of debris left by the crash of Sage Karam, driver of the # 24 DRR-Kingdom Racing Chevrolet Dallara (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Moving forward

The death of Justin Wilson was certainly not Sage Karam’s fault. It was a freak accident and nothing more. But inevitable negative thoughts above how things could have been different had he not wrecked flooded Karam’s mind after the crash. He could not fall asleep at night and ended up needing to meet with a psychiatrist for therapy. Sebastian Saavedra would drive in his place at Sonoma, the 2015 season finale.

In his first race after the accident, the 2016 Indianapolis 500, Karam started in 23rd place driving the #24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet. But by lap 94 of the 200-lap, 500-mile event, Karam had already worked his way into the top 5. It looked like Karam was in for the result of his life and his misfortune was all behind him.

But then he tried to pass Townsend Bell on the outside heading into turn 1 on lap 94, Karam’s day would end in the wall despite the fact that he had a legitimate chance to win the race.

Karam would return to compete in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 in the cockpit of the #24 Dreyer & Reinbold Chevrolet, but he didn’t end up having much speed. He finished the race in 28th place after starting in 21st as a result of a battery failure on lap 126.

The present

To this day, Sage Karam has not driven in a non-Indianapolis 500 race since the tragic accident at Pocono. That needs to change.

But why, exactly, does the series need Karam as a full-time driver, especially given the fact that there has been so much negativity, both controllable and uncontrollable, throughout his IndyCar career so far through only 15 races? Well, the answer is actually quite simple.

Karam, who currently drives for Lexus in the IMSA, has been a legitimate contender to win several of the 15 IndyCar races in which he has driven, which is very impressive for any driver, let alone a 22-year-old who has never driven full-time in America’s top open-wheel racing series. Unfortunately, however, he has been unable to capture that elusive first victory.