Keeping Up to Speed with Charlie - Indianapolis, Week 1

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Good news: I’ve been hired!

It’s true, I have a new part-time job… I’m the new @IMS Twitter Reporter for the month of May!

So what does this mean? Basically I’ll keep you updated on the all of the happenings throughout the month, from how I feel after a practice session to off-track activities… maybe even some fun “behind-the-scenes” exclusives. I’ll also be participating in a live chat via Twitter as well as a tweetup in the garage (stay tuned for dates on these).

How can you take part? Easy! Just follow me (@racewithinsulin), @IMS and @IndyCar all month long on Twitter. Also keep an eye on the #Indy500 hashtag to see what other fans are saying.

I told my friends at IMS that I’m willing to do the reporter’s job for a few extra laps before Indy 500 qualifying. Seems fair, right?!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It’s May—the greatest time of year. I couldn’t be more excited and anxious to get on track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway! No matter how many times I drive into the Speedway, or take a walk down Gasoline Alley, it never gets old. And to have the opportunity to take a shot at winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing is priceless.

It’s only the first week of May, but things are already ramping up. Yesterday I went up to Ft. Wayne, Indiana to visit a group of families at Lutheran Hospital. I had the chance to share my story, talk about racing, and hopefully give the kids motivation to chase their own dreams. Click here to watch a quick video, and click here to see a couple of pics. Tomorrow I head to Memorial Hospital in South Bend and St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Mishawaka to meet more fellow type 1 diabetics.

On the agenda for today is a seat belt fitting at the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing shop, then later this evening I’m going to a concert with friends. Should be a fun time! This Sunday I’ll fly down to Texas for the open test on Monday… a little bit of seat time is always a good thing! After I get back, it’s full-speed ahead (pun intended!) for the Month of May!

Hope to see you all at the track this month!

Race Results - Sao Paulo 2012

Sao Paulo Indy 300
Finishing position: 8th
Starting position: 15th
Championship standings: 15th
Click here to read the full race report.

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Keeping Up to Speed with Charlie - Sao Paulo

Click here to sign up for my email list to receive "Keeping Up to Speed with Charlie" in your inbox!

Live from Trackside - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Sunday, April 29
3:50 p.m.

It was a really interesting race—a lot happened for sure! It was a ton of fun, especially in the end. We had a great racecar, so I have to thank the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew for everything. All I had to do was drive the wheels off the car!

Strategy-wise, they worked really hard on the pit stand to give me the opportunity, and when I had clear track they gave me the best tires so I was quick and could push. We got caught up in a couple of reds; I have to thank the Holmatro Safety Team for working hard to keep me on the lead lap there.

We made the most of it today. To come through reasonably clean and with a career-best eighth, it feels really good. I’m looking forward to taking this momentum into the whole month of May and from there, building on it for the rest of the season.

9:41 a.m.
Just finished up our warm-up here in Brazil. It rained overnight and it started to rain right as we started our session. All of those days racing in the wet in England just might be helpful today!

The biggest challenge in the wet is always going to be vision. The vision’s really tough with the spray. When it stopped raining there and we moved some of the water off, instead of a sheen of wet race track, it was sort of semi-matte so there was a little bit of grip. The brake was pretty good; this car’s always pretty impressive on the brakes. Firestone brought a pretty good rain tire for us.  It looks like the clouds are breaking up now. If it thunderstorms again, it could be standing water out there. It will be really interesting. It sound like INDYCAR might start the race a half hour earlier to try to get as much in before the storms come in this afternoon. I don’t think I’ll be able to see anything going into turn one at the start, but we’ll make the most of it and see where we shake out come the checkered flag.

Be sure to tune in at 11 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Network!

Saturday, April 28

3:48 p.m.
We had a pretty good qualifying session and I think our best on a road course so far this year. Our lap time was so close to the top 12 and that was our goal. When you’re a tenth and a half off of that and hundredths from seventh, it’s frustrating. If it rains, the vision back there from 16th is going to be pretty tough. But that also means if it goes wrong up front, I’ll hopefully have enough time to avoid everything. The weather’s the big question, but I think we have a really good car if it stays dry and a really good car if it rains. We are making good progress and getting there. Looking forward to tomorrow with the Novo Nordisk team here in Brazil!

12:31 p.m.

It was a better second practice session. The track stayed dry and the sun even tried to come out a bit. We got a little caught out there at the end with the red flags—a lot of people going off, just really trying hard. I think with a clean lap, we would have been higher up on the charts, maybe 10th. We’re in really good shape come qualifying. The car’s pretty good, so thanks to the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team. I’m still figuring out the track a little bit. We’ll get it better. There’s every chance we’ll be in the top-15, shooting for the top-10, for qualifying. 

Time for lunch!


9:58 a.m.

Woke up to a cloudy and humid, but dry, day here in Sao Paolo. It didn’t rain overnight so the track was pretty dry before we got out there for our first session.

It was a good first practice. The track was really, really dirty to start with. By the end it started to rubber up. Now I remember how fun this place is in the dry! I hope the weather holds up and stays dry so the fans get to see a great qualifying session this afternoon. In general, I think we’re in pretty good shape. We have a few optimizations for the car but the engineers are working hard for the next practice in a couple of hours.

Friday, April 27
12:30 p.m.
Hello from Sao Paulo! I just arrived and got to the hotel. Guess what?! It's raining! Yes, it looks like it'll be another wet weekend here in Brazil. No matter the forecast, we'll be ready to give it a shot for another top-10 result.

I'm headed to the garage soon, but here's a quick run-down of the weekend schedule (all times local; that's one hour ahead of Eastern). Live timing & scoring all weekend here.

Saturday, April 28:
8-9:20 a.m. Practice
11:05 a.m.-12:05 p.m. Practice
2:05-3:20 p.m. Qualifying (also on NBC Sports Network at 6 p.m. ET)

Sunday, April 29:
8:30-9 am. Warm-up
12 p.m. Race (Live on NBC Sports Network!)

I'm on a boat!

As some of you may know, I love being out on the water almost as much as I like being in a race car. On Friday, I got to see my new Axis Wake A22 boat for the first time! It was love at first sight. I was able to take it out for a bit, and the great guys at Axis and Mid-Indiana Marine showed me everything it can do. Growing up, I always enjoyed surfing in California as a way to relax and still be active. Hard to find good waves in the Midwest, but now at least I can wake surf behind the boat. I’m super pumped for the summer here in Indy… relaxing on the boat after a good race weekend sounds like the perfect plan to me!

Isn't she pretty?!

On Thursday evening, I head down to Sao Paolo for IndyCar’s third annual event in Brazil. I felt really good after Long Beach, despite our bad luck late in the race. I'm excited to head to Brazil and see what I do there with all of the experience I gained running in the top six in Long Beach. Last year Sao Paulo definitely gave us a wild race and honestly some of the most difficult driving conditions I've ever experienced. That said, the NovoNordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team did a great job keeping me in the race and we had a decent finish under the circumstances. This year I'm going to Brazil with more experience, more confidence and even more drive to get a top-10 finish.

Keep your eye on this blog for updates during the race weekend! I might be a bit delayed with not knowing my connectivity abilities down there, but I’ll do my best! My PLR (Pit Lane Reporter from @racewithinsulin) won't be making the trip so there won't be as many live, 'behind the scenes' tweets, but you can always stay clued in here on my blog!

P.S. Check out this blog post by Brett, a race fan living with diabetes since age 9. I’m honored to be included in your blog, Brett!

Friday greetings, congrats and updates!

Happy Friday!

The big news of the day... congrats to Ambre Morley on her promotion at Novo Nordisk--extremely well-deserved! Ambre has been a major leader and advocate for our partnership program from day one, and I can't thank her enough for lending her expertise, time and support!

After a busy week out on the West coast (you know, the Best coast), I'm laying low for a few days and resting up for Brazil. I stopped by the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing shop on Wednesday to pack up all of my gear for the shipment to Sao Paulo--triple-checked the list, don't worry. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with some elementary school kids at IMS for the 500 Festival Education Program. Hopefully they learned a bit about IndyCar and will come back to see us in May!

The always-popular question: What if you need to go to the bathroom while in the car?!

Race Results - Long Beach 2012

Grand Prix of Long Beach
Finishing position: 18th
Starting position: 9th
Championship standings: 20th
Click here to read the full race report.

Click here to sign up for my email list to receive "Keeping Up to Speed with Charlie" in your inbox!

Live from Trackside – Grand Prix of Long Beach

Sunday, April 15
4:20 p.m.
I think it was an encouraging race even though the result didn’t show it. We had a gearbox problem at the end of the race and just couldn’t get a finish out of it. I’m encouraged by the fact that we ran up front all day, in the top six consistently. Strategy maybe played out a little differently than we had hoped, but the car was easily quick enough for a top six. All credit goes to the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew all weekend; they made my job easy. We probably had a better car than all of the guys I was racing around me. It’s a shame not to get the result but we’ll learn from it, make it even better, go to Brazil, and hopefully head into May with a great result!


10:11 a.m.
It was a really good warm-up session. The track is still a little cold. The sun's out, so it's warming up now. With the temperature, it took a litte while for the tires to come in. Obviously this place is biting people, especially in turn five. The No. 83 team has a really good race car, so I'm looking forward to starting inside the top 10 and hopefully converting that into a top-10 result. It's going to be interesting to see what people do for tire and fuel strategy--I think it will be different for a lot of guys, but we'll be in good shape. I got a couple of extra laps on blacks; between red flags, we didn't even run the red tires so we'll see what it does at the green flag!

I'm about to do a quick meet-and-greet with all of my friends and family that came out this weekend--I can't thank them enough for their support!

Tune in to the Grand Prix of Long Beach at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC Sports Network!

Ready for race day warm-up!

Saturday, April 14
3:34 p.m.
I think that was a good qualifying session. We made some progress. I'm a little disappointed to not be inside the top six; a few tenths would have put me right there. But we did make progress, and we were a lot closer in lap times to my teammates which is big. It looks like, with the others' penalties, I'll start 9th. I'm really excited for tomorrow's race. I think we have a great race car in the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car. We're in shape for a good race and hopefully a top-10 finish tomorrow.

On another note, here's a great pic of me and the other Charlie (from Friday at the Novo Nordisk FlexPen Tunnel)!

Mini-me?!

11:55 a.m.
The No. 83 team had a pretty good practice session. After watching it rain yesterday, it was nice to get on track to get some laps in. We made a few changes to the car. It was kind of a scrap session with all of the yellows, but in the end we kept it clean and made some progress. We got quicker yet there's still a little bit more to go. We know what we need to do, and we can look at our teammates' data and we've got some good information ourselves. I'm excited for qualifying on this beautiful California afternoon!


8:59 a.m.
It's a beautiful day at the track! I have a somewhat straight-forward day, with practice at 10:25 a.m. Pacific then qualifying at 2 p.m. Because of the rain yesterday, we only have this morning's practice to focus on our qualifying setup, but I have confidence that the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team will get it done!

Be sure to track live timing and scoring here, or watch qualifying on NBC Sports Network at 6 p.m. Eastern.


Friday, April 13
5:30 p.m.
It's just about been a wash-out with the weather today unfortunately. But that's racing. We'll just have to maximize the time we get on track tomorrow morning for practice. It looks like it should be sunny, so we'll make the most of it before qualifying. We'll focus on getting a good spot and then get the car ready to go during warm-up before Sunday afternoon.

Despite the rain, we have quite a productive and fun day off the track. I got to meet a ton of awesome fans at the Novo Nordisk FlexPen Tunnel this afternoon, including a four-year-old fellow Type 1 named Charlie (a mini-me!). Charlie is a big racing fan, and he said his bedroom is covered in racing memorabilia. He even has a life-size poster of me on his wall! Later on, his dad Jason was talking to one of my team members and said that Charlie told him he wants to be like me--not because I'm a race car driver, but because he wants to make other kids with Type 1 happy too. So cool (and extremely humbling). It's fans like Charlie that totally make the long days worth it! I can't thank everyone enough for the support!


9:01 a.m. 
Well, Cali is obviously getting back at me for moving to Indy... Nothing like a walk to the track in the rain!

I got an early start today for a live shot on KTLA. Depending on the weather, we'll be on track for practice at 10 a.m. Hopefully it will dry out for the afternoon practice so we get some good time in before tomorrow.

Here's a quick story and photos from my hospital visit with Novo Nordisk on Tuesday: IndyCar Driver Charlie Kimball Visits Miller Children's Memorial Hospital in Long Beach

Live on KTLA!

Thursday, April 12
5:16 p.m.

Talking with the folks from ABILITY Magazine

Just finished up with the track walk. Even if you've driven here a few times, it's always good to refresh your memory and check out any changes. For example, they've moved a couple of walls and repaved the hairpin since last year. That will change how we approach the hairpin, which we'll work on figuring out tomorrow. It looks like rain is in the forecast for tomorrow's practice, so we'll just have to play it by ear.

One thing that struck me this morning when talking to the local radio stations was their excitement for the grand prix. It's always one of my favorites so it's great to hear that the fans and media in SoCal share that excitement when we come to town.

I'm going to have a chat with my engineers, then head to dinner with the family. More tomorrow!

12:01 p.m.
Hello from a (relatively) chilly Long Beach! Yeah, it was only in the low 50's earlier today... which is practically freezing for this part of the world.

This morning I talked to KLAA Anaheim, KTLK 1150 AM and COX TV. I'm just getting some lunch now and then I have an interview with ABILITY Magazine. The fun begins at 2 for the track walk. We didn't have a whole lot of luck here last year, but I think we're starting to get a better feel for the new car. We'll see what we can do on Friday for the first practice!

Here's a quick run-down of the Grand Prix of Long Beach race weekend schedule (all times Pacific):
Friday 10-11 a.m. and 2:15-3:15 p.m. -- Practice
Friday 12:30-1:15 p.m. -- Appearance at the Novo Nordisk FlexPen Tunnel (Fan Zone)
Friday 4-5 p.m. -- IndyCar autograph session (Paddock)
Saturday 10:25-11:25 a.m. -- Practice
Saturday 2-3:20 p.m. -- Qualifying
Sunday 9:15-9:45 a.m. -- Warm-up
Sunday 12:30 p.m. -- Grand Prix of Long Beach, live on NBC Sports Network
Live timing and scoring at racecontrol.indycar.com.

P.S. Don't forget to follow @RaceWithInsulin on Twitter -- my new Pit Lane Reporter (PLR) is back and will take cover my feed during practices, qualifying and the race!