IndyCar: Charlie Kimball tipped to return to Carlin in 2019

Charlie Kimball has been tipped to return to Carlin for his second season with the team in the 2019 IndyCar season, which would be his ninth season.

After spending his first seven IndyCar seasons driving full-time for Chip Ganassi Racing from the 2011 season through the 2017 season, Charlie Kimball drove for Carlin in the 2018 season, the team’s first season in the sport.

The 33-year-old Camarillo, California native has been tipped to return to the second-year Florida-based team in the 2019 IndyCar season after driving the #23 Chevrolet for the team last season alongside Max Chilton, who is set to return to the team as the driver of the #59 Chevrolet.

While there is no official word on Kimball’s status for the 2019 season as far as an IndyCar ride is concerned, much less a ride with Carlin is concerned, the pieces of the puzzle all seem to be coming together and pointing to his return to the sport and to the team.

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In September after the 2018 season ended, there were rumors that Carlin could expand to a three-car full-time team in the 2019 season. Since that time, Chilton has been set to return to the team as the driver of the #59 Chevrolet, as his father Grahame is a co-owner of the team, but there was far more uncertainty surrounding Kimball.

This was the case because there were rumors that the team’s two other drivers, if they ended up signing two other drivers, could end up being Ed Jones, who drove for the team in the 2014 Formula 3 European Championship season and the 2015 and 2016 Indy Lights seasons, and Marcus Ericsson, who drove for the team in the 2008 Macau Grand Prix.

Jones drove for Chip Ganassi Racing this past season but is set to be replaced by Felix Rosenqvist behind the wheel of the #10 Honda next season while Ericsson has driven for Alfa Romeo Sauber in Formula 1 since the 2015 season but is set to be replaced by Antonio Giovinazzi (although he was technically replaced by Kimi Raikkonen per the terms of Sauber’s title sponsorship deal with Alfa Romeo) next season.

However, neither one of these two drivers is set to drive for Carlin next season.

Jones is set to drive for Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa in the road and street course races as Jordan King’s replacement behind the wheel of the #20 Chevrolet and in the Indianapolis 500 behind the wheel of the #64 Chevrolet while Ericsson is set to drive full-time for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports behind the wheel of the #7 Honda (as Robert Wickens’s replacement, although Wickens drove the #6 Honda).

With only Chilton having been confirmed by Carlin for next season and the team still set to add one driver if not two drivers to their full-time lineup for 2019, all signs point to Kimball returning to the team, as it is unlikely that they will add a new driver or drivers and not Kimball, especially with Jones and Ericsson both being off the table.

While there are still be some details to iron out with Novo Nordisk, Kimball’s longtime sponsor, to make this happen, Kimball is the clear top candidate to end up driving the #23 Carlin Chevrolet once again in the 2019 season after a 2018 season during which he recorded six top 10 finishes, including a fifth place finish, in 17 races while Chilton failed to finished a race higher than 11th in equal equipment.

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Will Charlie Kimball return to Carlin in the 2019 IndyCar season? If not, will he return to IndyCar at all next season, and who will Carlin’s second (and possible third) driver be?