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IndyCar: Charlie Kimball hints he will return to Carlin in 2019

By Asher Fair

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 08: Charlie Kimball, driver of the #23 Tresiba Chevrolet, stands on the grid during the US Concrete Qualifying Day for the Verizon IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 8, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 08: Charlie Kimball, driver of the #23 Tresiba Chevrolet, stands on the grid during the US Concrete Qualifying Day for the Verizon IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 8, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /
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IndyCar veteran Charlie Kimball hinted on Twitter that he will return to Carlin as Max Chilton’s teammate in the 2019 season.

The #23 Carlin Chevrolet is the only confirmed full-time car that does not have a confirmed full-time driver for the 2019 IndyCar season. This has been the case since two days before Thanksgiving of 2018 when rookie Santino Ferrucci was confirmed as the full-time driver of the #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda for the 2019 season.

Carlin entered IndyCar for the first time in the 2018 season with Charlie Kimball as the driver of the #23 Chevrolet and Max Chilton as the driver of their other car, the #59 Chevrolet. Chilton has already been confirmed as the driver of the #59 Chevrolet for the 2019 season.

While Kimball has not yet been confirmed as the driver of the #23 Chevrolet for the 2019 season, he was tipped to return to the team as Chilton’s teammate last month.

Now, despite the fact that there has not been any official word from Carlin about the matter, the 33-year-old Camarillo, California native has hinted on Twitter that he will indeed return to the team as the driver of the #23 Chevrolet for the 2019 season.

Here is what he had to share about the matter.

It seemed like only a matter a time before this news was made official considering the fact that the 2018 season ended more than four months ago and the 2019 season is scheduled to begin in less than two months, and Kimball’s post reaffirmed this notion.

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In his first season driving for Carlin, which was his eighth season competing as a full-time IndyCar driver, Kimball finished in 17th place in the championship standings with one top five finish and six top 10 finishes in 17 races. He led one of the 2,260 laps that he completed and recorded an average starting position of 19.4 and an average finishing position of 15.0.

Kimball’s lone top five finish in the 2018 season was his fifth place finish in the race on the streets of Toronto, and it was his first top five finish since he finished in fifth in the 2016 Indianapolis 500 when he was still driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, the team for which he drove from his rookie season, the 2011 season, through the 2017 season.

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Will Charlie Kimball be confirmed as the driver of the #23 Carlin Chevrolet for the 2019 IndyCar season? There is still plenty of time for this announcement to be made, as the season is not scheduled to get underway until Sunday, March 10 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.