Ganassi's Kimball is focused on the next challenge at Sonoma

Following his first-place finish in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Charlie Kimball moved from 11th into a tie for seventh in the IZOD IndyCar Series point standings with 325 markers, -128 points behind leader Helio Castroneves.

Kimball has now been in the top-10 of the IZOD IndyCar Series point standings four times this season and has spent five of the 14 rounds there in 2013. In all of 2012, Kimball made one appearance in the top-10, following the first round at St. Petersburg in ninth.

Race winner Charlie Kimball, Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Last season, Kimball finished 21st in the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma Raceway. The finish came in Kimball’s 29th career IZOD IndyCar Series start. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team started from 21st position and withstood incidents that caused two cautions totaling 11 laps on the 2.31-mile, 12-turn road course.

The No. 83 would find its way from 21st position to 11th by lap 65 of the 85-lap race. As the No. 83 climbed its way up the charts, the car lost fourth-gear during the first caution period.

Due to the late-technical issue, Kimball was forced to pit to fix the gearbox on lap 69. As a result, the No.83 NovoLog FlexPen Honda dropped 10 positions and went three laps down to spend the remainder of the race in 21st position.

Charlie Kimball: "I'm definitely looking forward to Sonoma this weekend. The No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen car had the pace for a better result last year, and I think with the extra test time we'll be able to figure out what we can do with the car to keep it in the top-10 until the checkered flag.

We're working hard on sorting out qualifying speed at this track; we can always use a better starting position to our advantage at Sonoma. We had the chance to celebrate our win at Mid-Ohio, so now the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team is focused on the next challenge: our second win."

Chip Ganassi Racing