Sage Karam will continue his foray into the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2023 as he returns to Alpha Prime Racing for a part-time schedule. His first race will be at Atlanta Motor Speedway on 18 March.
After spending much of his career in the NTT IndyCar Series, albeit as an Indianapolis 500-only driver, Karam entered the Xfinity Series in 2021 with Jordan Anderson Racing. A year later, he ran nine races for Alpha Prime and scored a fifth-place finish at Daytona; it was APR’s first top five. He also rejoined JAR for a Truck Series start at Martinsville.
“Sage has managed the learning curve from open wheel to stock car racing extremely well given his limited starts in the series,” team owner Tommy Joe Martins stated. “He continues to grow and show more and more speed and discipline each time he hits the track. Sage puts us in a great position to contend for our first win, and our team couldn’t be more excited to have him back for 2023.”
While he has been tackling NASCAR more often, he intends to continue racing in IndyCar even if limited to the 500. He finished twenty-third in the 2022 edition for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, a year after scoring his best finish in the race of seventh. The 2013 Indy Lights champion ran much of the 2015 IndyCar schedule for Chip Ganassi Racing and scored his lone podium at Iowa en route to a points finish of twentieth.
Karam also has sports car and rallycross experience, the latter of which included finishing runner-up for the Nitro Rallycross NEXT championship with DRR.
“I couldn’t be more thankful for the opportunity to compete again with Tommy and the guys,” Karam commented. “We had our fair share of highs and lows, and everything in between last year, but learned and improved each time. What you can’t overlook with APR is Tommy’s leadership and the work ethic of each person at the shop. I put a lot of value into that and will do my best to complement them on and off the track.”
Alpha Prime fields the #44 and #45 Chevrolet Camaros for multiple drivers including Martins. The #44 finished twenty-fifth in owner points, three spots ahead of the #45. Ryan Ellis, who ran ten races for the team in 2022, is the only other driver confirmed for 2023 as he will enter at least fifteen events.
