IndyCar: Charlie Kimball rumored to land A.J. Foyt ride as lone full-time driver

By Asher Fair | Dec 12, 2019

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 09: Charlie Kimball, driver of the #83 Tresiba Chip Ganassi Racing Teams Honda, prepares to practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 9, 2017 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /

Charlie Kimball has been rumored to end up as A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ lone full-time driver in the 2020 IndyCar season after driving part-time for Carlin in 2019.

For the first time since his IndyCar career began at Chip Ganassi Racing back in the 2011 season, Charlie Kimball was not a full-time driver in 2019.

Kimball spent the first seven seasons of his career at Chip Ganassi’s team before he was released after the 2017 season prior to joining Carlin. He drove full-time for the first-year team, but due to a reduction in sponsorship and funding, he was only able together to put together a deal to compete in five (became seven) races in the 17-race 2019 season.

Now, however, the 34-year-old Camarillo, California native has been rumored to return to full-time competition in the 2020 season.

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RACER’s Marshall Pruett has reported that Kimball could end up at A.J. Foyt Enterprises in 2020, provided his quest to bring enough funding to the table proves successful.

Perhaps most notably, he reported that Kimball would likely be the team’s only full-time driver.

This revelation comes amidst many questions surrounding the future of A.J. Foyt’s team. Foyt vowed to continue on with two full-time cars in the 2020 season despite the loss of full-time primary sponsor ABC Supply after 15 years, but with the organization already being one of the slowest teams in the field, pushing two full-time entries with a significant loss in funding did not seem like the most viable of options.

It is important to note that Pruett’s report comes just one day after IndyStar reported that Tony Kanaan remains likely to return to A.J. Foyt Enterprises for his third season with the team in 2020.

Kanaan did, in fact, state that he will compete in IndyCar in 2020. He stated that he is close to confirming that news and that he would likely be competing with A.J. Foyt Enterprises once again.

But he also notably stated that he did not know the extent to which he would be competing and that the team were still searching for funding, meaning a part-time ride was not out of the picture.

So following several months of uncertainty, the future of the team at least looks somewhat clear, despite the fact that none of the questions have truly been fully answered. Kimball looks poised to drive full-time alongside Kanaan in a part-time role.

Kimball and Kanaan were teammates at Chip Ganassi Racing from the 2014 season through the 2017 season, after which time the team downsized from four cars to two and Kimball joined Carlin while Kanaan joined A.J. Foyt Enterprises.

Kimball has earned one win in 141 career starts, with that lone victory coming at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2013. He has taken six podium finishes, most recently with a third place effort in the 2015 season finale at Sonoma Raceway, and one pole position at Texas Motor Speedway in 2017. He finished in a career-high ninth in the championship standings in both the 2013 and 2016 seasons.

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Will Charlie Kimball be back behind the wheel of an IndyCar on a full-time basis in the 2020 season driving for A.J. Foyt Enterprises? Will he be the team’s lone full-time driver if he does join the organization?