MODERATOR: Sage is currently second in the Firestone Indy Lights in points after getting his first win last Saturday. Has the win sunk in?
SAGE KARAM: The first one's always the toughest. To get that first one, it almost lifts a thousand pounds off your shoulders. I'm definitely feeling good and definitely have some good momentum going into Iowa with two poles in a row and a win. But we have to put that behind us and just focus on Iowa now.
Q: You made some history last weekend at Milwaukee. Aside from your first victory, you became the first driver to win in the USF2000 Championship, Pro Mazda Championship and Firestone Indy Lights. What does winning in all three mean for you and your career, and how you think the Mazda Road to Indy has helped your career?
SAGE KARAM: It's definitely a good feeling knowing we could be successful in all the cars in the Mazda Road to Indy. It's good to know we were getting the wins early in each series. I'm sure that some IndyCar team owners taking notice of stuff like that. Hopefully we can get a ride going in IndyCar next year. I think the Mazda Road to Indy prepares young drivers in a very good way. I've learned everything just in those cars starting in the USF2000. That was a great car to learn in. Then we moved up to Pro Mazda. I didn't win the championship but won some races, and had some bad luck with mechanical failures. All these cars teach a driver the basics of an open-wheel car. Now we're in the Indy Lights. Hopefully this is going to transition into IndyCar.
Q: Was there a point when you first started out that you thought you could do this?
SAGE KARAM: There were actually two points in my life. There was one time when I couldn't break the top 10 in karting. I think I was about 8 years old. My parents aren't the wealthiest so I didn't have a lot of money to be doing the whole racing deal. It almost was like, 'This isn't the right thing for me. I don't think I'm going to be a race car driver. It's pretty much going to be over unless something dramatic changes.' My dad said, 'We're going to give it one more try.' He said, 'If you don't win, we're done racing.' Kind of a lot of pressure. I haven't gotten in the top 10 before since then. I went into the race and I won Saturday and I won Sunday. It was huge. It was in the Stars of Karting event. Those are two parts of my life when racing almost ended. At that moment I realized, 'Hey, there's a reason that I won out of nowhere. From there on, it's almost like going back to that confidence. I knew I could win. That's when we started winning championships and knew that this is what I could do.
MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined by IZOD IndyCar Series team owner and driver Ed Carpenter, the 2013 Indianapolis 500 pole sitter.
Q:Has your 2013 season exceeded your expectations so far, matched your expectations, been less than? Give us a report card?
ED CARPENTER: It's a bit of a mixed bag. When it comes to ovals, we've been strong. Don't have all the results that we wanted, whether it was Indy or even Milwaukee last weekend. Milwaukee, especially I didn't do a great job. I should have been in the top 10 there. With the road and street courses, the pace has been a lot better this year, which I've been happy about. At the same time, same sort of story: haven't gotten the results we'd hoped for. I'm not disappointed with the season, but I feel like we have more results to give here. Luckily, we have a lot of races left to do that.
Q: Iowa coming up is a heat race format, which is unique for a lot of drivers, but definitely not for you because that's what you grew up racing with in USAC. Does that give you any advantage?
ED CARPENTER: At this point I would say no because it's been so long since I've been racing in USAC midgets and sprints. It's the same, but it's different. We're still getting ready for a long race. The format this year is definitely more similar with one practice session. It's going to be exciting. I definitely think this year with the way INDYCAR changed the structure it should make the heat races a little more exciting. It appears we have a touch more downforce, which hopefully will be good because we'll be running more than in the daylight. It's an exciting format. I think it's something different. INDYCAR has been good about trying new things. Especially at a place like Iowa, which is Sprint car country, it's familiar for the race fans that are there.
Q: Outside of Indy, you've been a little bit up and down as far as the qualifying. Do you think the heat format will help or hurt you this weekend?
ED CARPENTER: The heat race format will help if we come off the truck with a really good car. Anybody that comes off the trailer with a good car, it's going to be advantageous in the heat races just because there's no other practice. If you're struggling in that first practice session, chasing that car, making changes, you only have a one-lap qualifying run to try something, which is really hard to do. I think it will be good for us. Like you said, we have struggled in qualifying at some places. Some of that we have answers for, others we don't. Some of it could be a one-car team, not that we use that as an excuse for anything. If we roll off the truck, we were strong at the race at Iowa last year, had the fastest lap of the race, we passed the leader to get our lap back. I expect to come off the truck fast and be very competitive.
