Karam placed on probation following Detroit races
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| Sage Karam |
Sage Karam has been hoping to get people to pay attention to his racing, but a five-race penalty levied by officials of the Verizon IndyCar Series following Sunday's race in Detroit might not have been what he was looking for.
A sentence in an IndyCar release listing infractions from the latest event in the series said simply, "IndyCar officials placed driver Sage Karam of Chip Ganassi Racing on probation for five races for violating Rule 9.3.3 (Avoidable Contact) during Race 2."
According to the IndyCar rule book, Rule 9.3.3 states: Avoidable Contact – The primary responsibility for avoiding contact with a Competitor resides with the overtaking Competitor and the secondary responsibility resides with the Competitor(s) being overtaken. A Competitor who fails to demonstrate their responsibility and initiates a maneuver that results in contact with another Competitor may be penalized."
No explanation of the incident is included, but the caution-laps portion of the box score indicates that a caution period on laps 55 and 56 resulted from a contact incident in Turn 3 involving cars driven by Karam, Jack Hawksworth and Stefano Coletti. None of the cars was eliminated from the race. Hawksworth was seventh and Karam 12th and both ran all 68 laps, and Coletti was 16th, just one lap down; but this is most likely the incident that was cause for the penalty against Karam.
IndyCar rules allow for a review of a probation if requested by the member, but when asked if he would make such a request, Karam texted The Morning Call on Thursday, "No, just accepted it and moved forward."
The Verizon Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway, where the Firestone 600 (248 laps on the 1.455-mile oval) will get under way at 8:50 p.m. Saturday, June 6 and will be televised by NBC Sports Network.
"I've had Texas circled on the calendar since the start of the year," Karam, the 20-year-old Nazareth native and IndyCar Series rookie said. "It's such a fast track that rewards high speeds, and I think that really suits my driving style. I'll be looking to my teammates for advice and setup information here as this will be my first race at TMS in an Indy car. It seems like they always manage to have an exciting race there and I can't wait to finally be a part of one."
The 2013 Firestone Indy Lights champion will have a different-looking car this week. It will be painted white and blue (purple is gone) and will be sponsored by Lexar, Comfort Revolution and Big Machine Records. "Looks good and fast!!!" Karam tweeted Thursday.
Karam had his best finish of the season in the second race in Detroit and goes to Texas in 21st place in the series standings.
His probation period will also include races in Toronto, Auto Club Speedway in California, Milwaukee and Iowa.
Marco Andretti, coming off second and fifth-place finishes in Detroit, goes to Texas in seventh place in the series standings. He has been a top-10 finisher in six of eight races, including the last three, and he is the only driver to have completed every lap (724) in 2015. Morning Call