Live from Trackside - Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

Sunday, April 7
5:45 p.m.
The whole team did a great job this weekend, from the guys in the pits to the engineering staff working on race strategy. I just had to get it done on the race track. We started to see some real improvement at St. Petersburg, but didn’t really get the result we deserved. But it all came together for us today and it feels great. I'll have to talk to Novo Nordisk into letting me run the Race With Insulin paint-scheme all year! To have all the Chip Ganassi Racing Teams represent blue rims this weekend meant a lot. Jamie McMurray finished top-10 in Martinsville today and the GRAND-AM boys finished top-five yesterday. It’s been a great weekend for diabetes awareness and the whole Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew.

I'm just now heading out of the track to get some BBQ before taking a flight home tonight. Thanks for the support all weekend long! I appreciate it.

Pre-race on the grid.

Post-race interviews

8:15 a.m.
Happy race day! I think it's going to be a good day for the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team. It's been a special weekend, both with on-track results and having the support for the Race With Insulin Unites initiative from the whole Chip Ganassi Racing organization. On that note, congrats to Steve (@Zabel311) for being named "Honorary Crew Chief" for the No. 1 Race With Insulin car, driven by my Ganassi teammate Jamie McMurray in today's NASCAR race. Good luck to Jamie and all of my Chip Ganassi Racing teammates running the blue circle wheels this weekend!

I also have some special guests from Axis Wake Research here this weekend, who I met while taking a tour of their factory late last year. They are taking a lap of Barber Motorsports Park this morning in the Honda Civic IndyCar Pace Cars, so they'll get a sense of what I'll be experiencing during the race later today.

I'm heading to chat with my engineers for a bit before the drivers meeting at 9:30. Check out warm-up at 11 a.m. Central at racecontrol.indycar.com!

No. 1 honorary crew chief! (via @EGRTeams)

Saturday, April 6
2:30 p.m.
It was a pretty good day for the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team! We had a lot of traffic during the practice yesterday afternoon and this morning, and we didn't get the lap in that we wanted. But looking at the sectors, we knew the car was pretty good. In the first run, I got the gap where I needed to, got a good lap time in, and came in. I was a little surprised that the round of 12 wasn't tighter lap time-wise. To only have done a 67.2 lap time, I think the track got hotter. The No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car was pretty good. We spent yesterday working mostly on race day setups. Come tomorrow, we have a bunch of tires on hand and we'll be in pretty good shape when the race starts.

After qualifying and the post-qualifying press conference, I headed out to the Fan Village to meet some fans at the Novo Nordisk FlexPen Tunnel. We always have great support here in Barber, so thanks for coming out!

Tonight I'm headed to a dinner with local Honda dealers, and I'll get to bed early for the race tomorrow. If you're watching from home, tune in at 2 p.m. Central on NBCSN!

Pre-qualifying, via @CGRteams

At the Novo Nordisk FlexPen Tunnel

9:25 a.m.
Not a bad start for morning practice. We made a couple of adjustments so didn't get a lot of laps in, but I think we'll be ready for a good qualifying run later on.

7:00 a.m.
It's an early morning start for us today, with practice beginning at 8. A bit chilly but I know it'll warm up later today. I'm grabbing breakfast with my friends at Honda hospitality then a quick chat with my engineers before we head out on track.

Make sure you're following me on Twitter @racewithinsulin for more updates!

Friday, April 5
5:30 p.m.
We had a really good day. It was awesome to talk about the Race With Insulin Unites program with my teammates and show off the inverted color-scheme for this weekend as well as the blue wheels across the Ganassi cars. I think, overall, we were pretty good in practice. We had the fourth-quickest time this morning and then in practice two we got caught up with some yellows and some traffic. We have a couple of different directions with the car setup to go over tonight. I’ll think we’ll be in good shape when it comes time to qualify tomorrow morning.

I'm off to do a couple of interviews this evening before dinner. Join me in cheering on the entire Team Ganassi this weekend as we show off the blue wheels for diabetes awareness!

Team Ganassi talking diabetes awareness

Blue wheels looking good!

Learn more at racewithinsulin.com!

10:30 a.m.
The sun is trying to come out here this morning at Barber! I got here a couple of hours ago for an fun interview with Fox 6. Can you pick me out in this photo? Yes, Josef and I had a few props from the Honda H-Block and played a little joke on James.

What's wrong, James?!

I'm spending some time with my engineers this morning before a press conference with my Ganassi teammates and Novo Nordisk at noon.

If you get a chance, check out this piece from the Birmingham News!

Thursday, April 4
2:00 p.m.
Good news--the rain (mostly) let up for the track walk! It looks like we'll have better weather for the rest of the weekend, so we're in for a good race. Hopefully we'll be able to use what we learned in testing here at Barber last month and make even more progress.

If you haven't yet, check out this video below to learn more about the Race With Insulin Unites initiative. The whole Ganassi team has some cool stuff coming up this weekend that will showcase the program! Can't wait to see it all come together.

8:00 a.m.
I’m really looking forward to getting back to Barber Motorsports Park. We had a pretty successful open test there, made some improvements to the car, and found a good direction. Coming off St. Pete, we were encouraged by the pace and performance of the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car and I know that the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team is ready to take that momentum and build it into a really good result this weekend!

I'll have some guests here this weekend from Axis Wake, who won a trip to the race when I visited their factory in Tennessee last December. I hope they enjoy seeing an IndyCar race weekend from a behind-the-scenes view as much as I enjoyed taking a tour of their facility!

Heading into the track now to spend some time with my engineers before the track walk at noon. Here's a schedule of the IndyCar action this weekend. Make sure you're on my race updates e-mail list (sign up here) to get a tune-in reminder each weekend!

Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
All times Central. Timing and scoring for all on-track sessions available here.
Friday, April 5:
12:45-1:45 p.m. Practice
3:45-4:30 p.m. Practice
Saturday, April 6:
8-8:30 a.m. Practice
10:25-11:35 a.m. Qualifying (on NBCSN at 4 p.m. CT)
12:15 p.m. Appearance at the Novo Nordisk FlexPen Tunnel (in the Red Diamond Fan Zone)
1-2 p.m. IndyCar driver autograph session (in the INDYCAR Fan Village)
Sunday, April 7:
11-11:30 a.m. Warm-up
2 p.m. Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (live on NBCSN)

2 Year D-Versary

Today, October 16th, is my 2 year anniversary of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was going to write a really nice, longer blog post about the diagnosis, the doors that diabetes have opened for me, the neat people I have met in the diabetes community and that while I would give it back if I could, I am enjoying the things it has allowed me to do. I had planned to write more than that until the Dodgers game was so good. Until I found the Angels game on TV and until a fierce low snuck behind me and threw my plan off. I do find it ironically apropos that a low would affect my plan on my D-versary. Meh.

At least I get to go to Wood Ranch for dinner tonight. I am so looking forward prime rib and the Oreo cookie dessert. I may have to take photos of the dessert. I love it that much. Glad I went swimming this afternoon. And that's probably where the low came from.

Fired Up for the Freedom 100!

I am so overwhelmingly excited for this race weekend. I spent all of today out at the racetrack and I cannot wait to get it all started. I went and looked at the new paint on the car at the workshop on Monday. I was a little afraid it wasn’t the exact right color, but once we got the car out in the sunlight and got the sponsor logos on the car to match, it is perfect. Also, the matching crew shirts showed up from the manufacturer today and they look so professional! They match the car and sponsor’s look perfectly. All in all it was a great day out at the track!

Let me start from the beginning…. I woke up to a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the meteorologists are predicting good weather through our race on Friday. I was whistling before I had left the driveway! I swung by a Starbucks to get a coffee and then out the Speedway. Today was Community Day at the track and so fans were out in the droves to attend both Indy Car and Indy Lights autograph sessions, pay some extra money to drive their own road car around the track, and wander through the garage and pit areas. The IMS museum had pulled a lot of the previous Indy 500 winning cars out to pit lane for display. It made me feel really safe comparing cars from 20 years ago to today! I digress- as I walked in from the car park I could smell the hot dog stand food, sunscreen and hear kids already having a great time. Not only was it a great day to be alive, it was a fantastic day to be at the racetrack…any racetrack would have been good, but since it was Indianapolis, it was very special. Then it was time for my autograph session and as always the line of people were very friendly, appreciative and always quick to wish each driver the best of luck. It always serves to remind me why we put on such a show. Don’t get me wrong- I love to drive for it’s own sake, but doing it for the fans adds another great element.

After the autograph session, it was lunchtime where I was informed the IRL had randomly chosen me for a drug screening. There were a whole group of drivers and crew members chosen and wasn’t a big deal. It did lead to an interesting conversation regarding diabetes, insulin usage and the fact that synthetic insulin is on the IOC’s banned substance list. I remember my endocrinologist, Dr. Anne Peters (a saint on earth!), talking about arguing Gary Hall Jr’s case to the IOC before his Olympic swims. As I understand it, she had to prove that she was only prescribing the insulin needed to bring him back to a level playing field and not an unfair advantage. I am not sure of the mechanics or chemistry in the body, but some people (without diabetes) operating outside the rules use synthetic insulin to bulk up somehow. So after a very interesting conversation regarding that, it was back to the team to oversee the new logos going on the car. And WOW was it looking good!

I headed back to the truck to organize the shirts for my crew. Also, sat in the front office and did a phone interview with for a print article in the next month. Then it was time to change into my suit, check the seat belt fit and make sure I was perfectly comfortable in the car. Then we pushed the car out to the pit lane and the ‘yard of bricks’ for a photo shoot. The emotion of a newly painted car pushing down the pit lane at Indianapolis with my name on the side was almost too much for me. It really was a very special moment.

Then it was back into street clothes and head to Macaroni Grill where I am writing this in the waiting area. My mom and dad have just landed at the Indianapolis airport (I saw their plane on final approach as I was driving out of the track) and are headed up here to eat dinner with me.

With all the work the crew has put in since we tested here a couple of weeks ago, I am very confident heading into the race weekend. We have done the best job we could so far and I believe we should be strongly in the top-10 all race weekend (well 'race week' as we race on Friday!).

Here is a decent photo of the car with me in it from my iPhone:

Fun Friday

So my Friday started of nice and early with an interview with Garth the weather guy from KABC 7 at 6:15 this morning. The morning was nice and crisp and promising a beautiful day. The interview went really well and the PR people and sponsor were super happy with it all.

Then it was into practice! The track is a lot of fun, more like a real street circuit than St. Pete was. The road crown plays a huge part into the car set up as well as the bumps around the streets. I was 13th quickest and we had a lot improvements to make to the car.

After a quick nap and a healthy lunch (grilled chicken with spaghetti and salad), it was back out for practice 2. We made some gearing changes going into practice 2 and it helped some, but didn't fix all of my problems. After sitting down and debriefing, we think we have made some big gains in lap time with the gearing set up. It's good as I was only 18th quickest!! It was a shame because I know I could have been quicker but got a bit blocked on my last laps.

Then it time for another debrief, and then onto a big video shoot for my new sponsor, Novo Nordisk- the company that makes my insulin. We had to interrupt that for the autograph session with all the Indy Car drivers. I was at the table with Danica Patrick and so got the most people cycling through for autographs. I went through probably 200 hero cards!!!

And back to the video shoot- lots of fun though. I am finally done at the track. I am just going to grab a quick healthy bite to eat before a well deserved full nights sleep. Qualifying starts bright and early tomorrow morning at 8:45.

Good Night!!!

Cycling for Sanity

I have travelling a fair bit lately and have been lazy about working out while I am on the road. When I got home from my trip to Florida for the Rookie test, I was pretty tired and didn’t have a lot of energy. Also, I have been struggling with higher than normal blood sugar levels. So finally yesterday afternoon I went cycling and it reminded me how important exercising is for so many reasons. Firstly, it brought my blood sugar numbers right down into range and made my carb counting a lot easier at the next couple of meals. Secondly, while it was a 2 hour/40 mile ride, I came away from it with a lot more energy than I started with. And thirdly, it gave me a great chance to get out of the office (or hotel room or off the airplane) and spend some time outside. The sun was shining and while it got a little cool on some of the descents, it was all beautiful. Before the last couple of years, I have never had a proper road cycling bike and it makes such a difference! I have a good friend at Rocky Mountain Bicycles in Canada and he helped me get the perfect bike for my size and needs. I ride the Rocky Mountain Solo 50st (which they don't make anymore!) and it is just right for me. Now I have upgraded to good shoes, good pedals and finally a new jersey and bib-short set. I have been riding in just regular cycling shorts and the bib made it a lot more comfortable so that by then end of the ride, it was just my legs that were hurting. The jersey set was part birthday present from my parents and part Christmas present from my grandmother. Here’s the photo of me in my gear with my bike. I am definitely going to take this to heart and when I am feeling down, frustrated, or just overwhelmed, I will get outside and go exercise. It is the best sanity check I have found yet!

Also, for those of you that interested in what my heart rate monitor says about my cycle rides- here is the graph from my ride. The red line is my heart rate, the blue line is my speed and the dark red line with the grey beneath it is altitude so you can see my climbs and descents. Some of the time when the speed drops to zero, I am waiting for red lights to change. I had to stop and check directions on my iPhone once too!

Feeling Alone in a Crowded Airport- And then Not.

In my first post on this blog, I touched on the different communities that I feel I am a part of and how that has affected my life. I closed with the comment that in the last 18 months the diabetes community has been the biggest factor in my life. I had a very first hand reminder of that as I was in Miami International Airport. I had just come from two days at the racetrack, a morning of jet-skiing with the team and was headed back to home in California and my friends. So I was very definitely leaving one or two sets of communities and heading back to a whole different set. And while at times I am a bigger part of one community or another, I am always a part of the diabetes community. Diabetes is with me every step of the way, every time I eat, every time I exercise, every time I enjoy any success or challenge; my diabetes is with me and not in an insignificant way. So there I was wandering through the airport, hungry for some lunch when I grabbed some orange chicken, beef with broccoli, and noodles. I sat down at a table to eat, checked my blood sugar (150mg/dl- still higher than normal from the snacks I had eaten at the lake) and injected insulin for the meal and to compensate for the slightly higher number. At that moment, as I finished my injection and put my diabetes supplies back into my backpack, I felt very alone. I seemed to be the only person in that diabetes community in the airport at that moment. And then a funny thing happened, the man across the aisle, with his wife and two kids, got up to head for their flight I noticed that he had an insulin pump on his belt. I spoke up and asked him if he liked his pump as I am always on the lookout for feedback about different technologies and treatment methods. He then proceeded to tell me how much he liked it and how it really helped his control. He said that he had recently upgraded the unit to integrate his continuous sensor. We talked about my using the DexCom Seven sensor and still using multiple daily injections. He commented again on how much the pump helped him and then he and his family were off to catch their flight. It was a completely random encounter, but it really made me feel a lot less alone. I went from being one random person in a very busy airport to one person who a strong connection to a complete stranger- all in the span of about 2 minutes.

My Double Dozen Birthday

On Friday I celebrated my 24th birthday and since I happened to be home on my actual day, I wanted to celebrate with my friends. I have had some pretty awesome birthdays in the past. For my 21st, I spent a weekend in Euro Disney, just outside of Paris. For a couple of my birthdays during high school, my friends and I went snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain. I think it was my 14th birthday, I remember winning a go-kart race at the now non-existent El Cajon Speedway. However, this year I wanted something a little more low-key. So instead of a massive dinner party, a weekend ski trip, or Disneyland, my parents and a few of my friends went out to dinner at a local family owned restaurant and bar- JJ Brewsky’s in Camarillo. I like JJ’s for a few reasons. They have good food, I like to support local restaurants when I can and they have a very wide selection of beers on tap. I rarely drink, and very rarely during the racing season, but wanted to have a beer to celebrate my birthday. JJ’s is the only restaurant in the area where I have found Lost Coast Brewery’s Great White on tap. I had a great time and a lot of fun with my friends. I meant to take lots of pictures of the evening to share, but I was having such a good time I completely forgot! I also managed to have a great steak sandwich with curly fries and a chocolate toffee mousse (don’t tell my diabetes nutritionist!) and kept my blood glucose numbers very close to where they should be! And so after another birthday, I will leave you with a piece of advice one of my uncles gave me “You have to grow old, but you never have to grow up!”

Community

I was in Starbucks today reading a book, taking notes, listening to music and watching the world go by when it struck me how many different communities I am a part of. Every day I am part of my local town community, part of Rio Mesa High School Alumni, part of the racing world, part of the diabetes community worldwide. That last one has had the single biggest impact on my life in the last 18 months. Yes, racing is what I live for and it makes my world go around. Having said that, without the support of the diabetes community, I may not have gotten back into the race car after my diagnosis October 2007. I think that my endocrinologist (who walks on water as far as I’m concerned), Dr. Anne Peters, explained it best one day as we talked about diabetes, life, racing and everything in between. She said to me, “treating diabetes involves a lot of love and discipline. We don’t rush in last minute like cardiologists, crack chests, start hearts, save lives! We fight the good fight, day in, day out against a problem that is almost impossible to see and yet can lead to complications worse than a lot of diseases.” To me, that hit the nail on the head. And it has truly manifested itself in the outreach of the diabetes community when I was first diagnosed, then when I got back into the car, and now as I start to work as an advocate for people with diabetes all over the world. Without that, I am not sure I would have had the determination and belief to be able to get back in the car and continue to pursue my dream. And so as I sat there enjoying my skinny Caramel Macchiato (after carb counting it!), being an active and passive piece in a lot of communities, I wanted to thank everyone who is involved in the diabetes community- if you have reached out to me directly, inspired me, or even just been there to listen.