Sage Karam will race in next week’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis driving for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in the team’s first non Indianapolis 500 appearance since 2013.
Karam, the 2013 Indy Lights champion, has raced for Dennis Reinbold’s outfit in five of the last six Indy 500s, and the squad also assisted Chip Ganassi Racing in 2015, the year it ran Karam.
However, Reinbold always planned for 2020 to be the season that his team moved on from one-offs and returned as part-timers for the first time since Oriol Servia made five appearances with the team in 2013, finishing fourth at the Sao Paolo street track.
Karam’s most recent non-Indianapolis Motor Speedway IndyCar experience came far more recently, when he drove a second Carlin entry at Toronto and Iowa Speedway last season, with a best finish of 21st.
Explaining DRR’s first-ever race on the 2.439-mile, 13-turn road circuit at IMS, Reinbold said: “We had planned to compete in the IndyCar Series season opener at St. Petersburg with the expansion of the [title sponsor] WIX Filters partnership.
“Then the COVID-19 pandemic came about, and we were put on hold.
“With some of the COVID-19 restrictions being lifted now, we felt that running Sage at the Grand Prix would fit our racing plans.
“It’s been seven years since we’ve competed in a road or street course or anything outside of the Indy oval.
“And the Indy 500 has been postponed until August now too, but we are very excited to come back to IMS for the Grand Prix.”
DRR appeared at the Sebring pre-season test, which Reinbold described as “a lot of fun” as the team embarked on “relearning the things that we haven’t touched for a while with road racing”.
“We have a tonne of data that we have worked hard to sort through,” he said.
“Our plan was A: not embarrass yourself, and B: be competitive, which is our goal.”
Karam said: “Dennis and his Dreyer & Reinbold team have been so loyal to my racing career and I can’t thank them enough for their support.
“I look at Dennis as almost like a second father, I can go to him about anything.
“He’s one of the good guys of motorsports. I feel like I’ve been lucky and blessed to be able to come into this team.”
Practice and qualifying for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be held on Friday 3 July with the warm-up and race the following day in a double-header weekend with NASCAR.