Charlie Kimball says neither he nor his marriage would have survived another partial IndyCar race deal for the 2020 season.
While he is now signed on for a full 2020 IndyCar season with AJ Foyt Racing, Kimball opened up on his 2019 deal, which was of a part-time nature. The American-born driver, in fact, competed for only seven races with Carlin last season.
The part-time schedule is something which Kimball said was extraordinarily hard on him and his family, where he added the situation was so bad that he and his marriage would not have survived another year under such circumstances.
In addition to that off-track component of extra stress, Kimball pointed out that the lack of consistency, last year, hurt his performances on the rare occasions he was racing. And, this is something the soon-to-be 35-year-old hopes a full-time schedule will rectify.
“Well I think, myself, I would not have survived, and I’m not sure my marriage would have survived another year on a partial schedule, because it was really tough on me last year, watching races when I wasn’t in the car,” said Kimball to media including FormulaRapida.net.
“And I think the consistency of being in the car every weekend allows me to stay in the rhythm. I noticed last year that when I was out of the car for a couple of races I got back in [and] it took a moment or two to knock some of that rust off.
“At the same time my competitors, who were weekend in, weekend out are in the car, they’re in that rhythm and that mode. Plus, the level of competition in IndyCar is so high that any moment it takes to get back up to speed puts you a long ways behind.
“So I come into this year really excited, really appreciative of the opportunity to work with the Foyt name; AJ Foyt is a racer at heart and I see that culture that AJ and Larry have built all the way through the team.
“I think together we’re gonna work really hard to get back to where they as a team want to be, and me as a driver want to be at every race.” Kimball will drive the #4 Chevrolet, with the team yet to announce his partner for the 2020 IndyCar season.
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This story was edited by Darshan Chokhani
