#333 Indy Car Driver Charlie Kimball Returns
Scott Benner
IndyCar is back!
Charlie Kimball is back to talk about what he's doing during the Covid-19 crisis and how he's preparing for the upcoming Indy Car race season. You can do anything with type 1 diabetes!
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:02
Hello and welcome to Episode 333 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is with Charlie Kimball IndyCar driver and type one diabetic. Charlie was first on the show five years ago. Lately I've been finding myself thinking about some of the early guests from the show and wanting to catch back up with them. And in my imagination, I couldn't decide what an IndyCar driver does during Coronavirus. What's he doing right now. And the things Charlie told me about how he's prepping for the upcoming racing season didn't surprise me, this is a hard working guy. Okay, I have something to share with you before the show starts. But before I share that, I of course have to tell you that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan are becoming bold with insulin. This is about the time I usually tell you that this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by and then I tell you about on the pod Dexcom touched by type one, and of course the Contour Next One blood glucose meter today. Today, they don't have ads on the show. Today, I want to take just a moment to tell you about something that I've been doing that I think will help you or maybe help someone you know.
longtime listeners know that the podcast is a mix of conversations with people living with Type One Diabetes. Sometimes they have on CEOs of big type one type. Sometimes I have on CEOs of large diabetes based companies, smaller upcoming companies, people come on sometimes and talk about pumps and glucose monitors, but they also talk about glucagon. And you know the type one diabetes exchange, I tried to give you a good mix of content. But at the core of this podcast, it's always sort of been about how I use insulin and how my daughter uses it and the results that she's had. So back in February of 2019, you know that Jenny Smith came on and started doing the diabetes pro tip series with me. And it really built into a quite a nice resource. So Episode 210 is for the newly diagnosed you're starting over then to 11 goes on about MDI. And then before you know it, there's discussions about insulin Pre-Bolus and Temp Basal insulin pumping using your CGM bumping and nudging. We talked about what the perfect bolus is and variables that could get in the way of your desired outcomes. There's a specific episode about setting up your basal insulin about exercising how fat and protein impacts your blood sugar, what to do when you're ill injured or having a surgery, how glucagon works, what to do if you end up in an emergency room. And the last one that was just put out in March of 2020, is about considering your long term health. The problem is because it's in a podcast, you know, it comes out once in a while this week, then not again for three weeks. And it's hard for some people to find. So I started diabetes pro tip.com. And it's just a place where you can go and listen to all of those episodes. And I still get credit for the downloads, just like if you were to listen to your app. But more importantly, if you've ever found yourself in a situation where you wanted to re examine one of those episodes, go back and listen again, or share it with a friend. It's now incredibly easy to do. So today's show is sponsored by me. And I'd like you to know about diabetes pro tip.com. Because I believe that it is a resource that everyone using insulin could benefit from. It's of course, absolutely free. Anyone can go use it. All the episodes are with me. And Jenny Smith, who of course is a CD, a registered dietician. She's a type one diabetic for over 30 years, and just a really incredibly smart person when it comes to managing diabetes. Now if you've never heard one of the diabetes pro tip episodes here on the Juicebox Podcast, you may be interested to hear some listener reviews. This one's from Marty and Marty says the pro tip series is filled with such great information. Thank you. For someone who has been living with Type One Diabetes for 30 years. I wish I had been more proactive in finding this information sooner. I'm going to recommend this to my endocrinologist in 1971 said my son was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes about five months ago. I have learned so much from just the protip shows and will be listening to all of the episodes. And type one Tara said this podcast has changed my life. I had a desire to lower my agency and manage my blood sugar's better, but was going at it blindly finding this podcast put everything into a tangible impractical management approach that has taken my agency from 8.3 to 6.3, in less than six months. And that's just right now, it's going to keep coming down. So whether you're the parent of a newly diagnosed child, or an adult who's been living with Type One Diabetes for decades, the diabetes pro tip episodes from the Juicebox Podcast, I think, can help you make a significant and lasting change to your health and your psychological well being. spend less time thinking about diabetes, more time eating the foods that you want, and understanding how to use the insulin that those foods require. That's it. Diabetes, pro tip.com. And now IndyCar driver. Charlie Kimball, we're recording I'm sorry, but I'm laughing because you're you were doing what last week instead of driving a race car.
Charlie Kimball 5:56
It's fairly a typical, but Saturday night, my buddy runs a local trivia company. And he's gone from hosting trivia in restaurants and local establishments to virtual. So he's been doing running games through a YouTube stream and an online form submission to do these trivia games and has gotten some local companies to sponsor Him and do prizes. And he and I came up with an idea to do an Indy 500 trivia game. Saturday night, he we co hosted it sorted out some really cool co streaming on his private YouTube page. And people paid for an entry and Part A large part of the proceeds went to support charity. That's an IU Health Foundation, which supports the the Medical Center at the racetrack. We were the original date for a fundraiser called rev that they call it igniting the month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was last Saturday night. And it supports that same foundation. So we were looking for a way to talk about end talk about the 500 in the month of May and still be able to do some good charity work as we went along.
Scott Benner 7:16
Yeah, right. Keep people busy too. Everybody needs something to do. Well tell me where would we be in this in the season right now if all this wasn't going on.
Charlie Kimball 7:25
So typically, starting the month of May, we would be four races into the the 17 race calendar. We would have started the season middle of March and St. Pete Florida, gone to the Long Beach Grand Prix race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, as well as Barbara Motorsports Park in Alabama. And this coming weekend would be the Indianapolis Grand Prix, the same race you came to a couple years ago. Right and coming out of the Indy GP. Next week, we would start practice for the Indy 500 qualify attempt to qualify the following weekend. And then the weekend after that Memorial Day weekend. Sunday. I think it's may 24. This year would have been 100 and fourth running of the Indy 500. Well,
Scott Benner 8:14
is there are there any plans right now for how to move forward or is everything on hold.
Charlie Kimball 8:20
Now the IndyCar Series has plans the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has taken the largely unprecedented step in these unprecedented times to reschedule the Indianapolis 500 for August. So August 23 will be the current plan for the hundred and third running 100 and fourth running excuse me at 500. The same timeline leading up to the race weekend with qualifying the weekend before practice the week before that. The Indianapolis Grand Prix, again, unprecedented we are running a double header with the NASCAR Brickyard 400 weekend. That's July 4. So the plan is to have the Annapolis Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 4. In collaboration with the NASCAR's Brickyard 400 event,
Scott Benner 9:13
does that quick succession change the? I'm not sure exactly. So for anybody listening, Oh, I got to watch Charlie drive a couple of years ago, and it was the first time I'd ever seen an IndyCar race at all. It's, it's amazing. It makes you walk away and wonder why anyone would do it. Because it's going very quickly. It's hard to put into words if you've only ever seen it on television, but there's these missiles that are constantly flying past you. But what I'm wondering is, are there rules in place about equipment, cars, tires? Do those rules relax or change? Or do they need to because the races are going to be more stacked up? Does anything like that change
Charlie Kimball 9:56
completely. They've had to re invent evaluate all of those situations. The I talked to somebody in IndyCar recently. And he said, we want to be spending our time, whatever race weekends we have available, going racing and putting on shows, however, that looks rather than going to test days and practice days. And because we have a few less races and some less miles, our amount of the amount of engines we're going to use this year are adjusting the amount of tires we're using are going to adjust. And I think the track time might actually reduce a little bit a similar amount of races, because they've added a couple of double headers. So we will have a full race Saturday, go to bed Saturday night, the mechanics will re prep the cars come back Sunday and have another full race on Sunday. Which means that it's kind of a twofer. The fans that get to come out to the racetrack for Laguna Seca in September, depending on what that looks like. We'll get to see a full race Saturday, and a full race Sunday as well.
Scott Benner 11:09
double feature. That's exactly uncommon. I was wondering, are you able to get into a car right now? Like do you have track time? I guess you could social distance and drive a car but or is that not happening at all.
Charlie Kimball 11:23
It's not happening at all the the way the rules and the way they've adjusted the season. Any testing any on track is not happening. The plan, we got a couple of practice days before the start of the season. But the plan is at the moment, for the first race of the schedule at Texas Motor Speedway to be the first time that any of us are back on track. I think the the way different states are working and in IndyCar teams are largely based in Indiana. But there are teams in Illinois, in Ohio, in North Carolina and in Florida and Texas. And so the way those teams are able to get back to work and start prepping the cars. It sounds like are going to start opening up this week, next week into the end of next week with different protocols as far as the amount of people allowed in the shop based on square footage, right? And who can work from home will continue to do that. But those that need to be in there touching the race car will be with some updated cleaning and sanitation.
Scott Benner 12:38
So how do you stay in practice them? There's no simulator for driving, right? Like a flight simulator. You can't put yourself into a that doesn't exist. Am I right? So how do you
Charlie Kimball 12:47
there are some very high end simulators. In fact, Chevrolet that powers my Indy car has a great simulator, we find it extremely effective, we I will go and drive my sit in the cockpit. It's the exact same chassis that I race on the track. And that cockpit moves like it does on the racetrack. And I get out of the car at the end of the day feeling like I've done a practice day at the racetrack. But we're able to get through a lot more engineering changes because it's quicker to change a computer than it is to say change a gearbox or a differential or suspension parts or wings, that sort of thing. So we're able to work through a lot and we find that validates what happens in the simulator to the real world. But with travel restrictions, I haven't been to the simulator yet this year, I think I will plan to before the first race but honestly most of the prep I've been doing has been my Sora normal training, working from home doing doing interviews and calls with my engineers with my healthcare team sort of tied up telemedicine, working with my trainer remotely and setting up a gym in my garage so I can continue my fitness work so that I'm ready to go physically when we get back to the racetrack.
Scott Benner 14:17
My son plays college baseball, he's missing his he missed his sophomore spring. They got about 10 games before this happened and he's taking his finals right now from home. And he said to me, because we don't have gym equipment here. He said when my finals are done, would you mind if I went out in the backyard and just took a sledgehammer and tried to dig a hole with it? And I said I guess if you do it behind the shed it's fine. Yeah. But um, but he's he's that last for you know, I mean we're on the field but I can only throw them so much soft toss. It's not playing baseball. You know, you only have so many catches and do long toss so many times it it doesn't really mimic it and what you're doing is so it's You know, it's just such an intense thing and it made me wonder in the simulator when you have been in it, does it impact your blood sugar for like anxiety and adrenaline like a race does or does your brain cognitively know you're not in a race?
Charlie Kimball 15:14
There is? It's a great question really interesting. I'm not sure that I see the same impact in my blood glucose numbers. I still wear, obviously wear my continuous glucose monitor when I'm in the simulator, just like I do when I'm in the race car. And being able to see that effect. There is definitely adrenaline. But there's also the physicality I think, both of those impacts the adrenaline bump and the physicality wear off or lower, so to speak, that I see in the racecar, I think get happens in the simulator at just a reduced intensity. Okay. So it really is very similar to as a good simulator should be it. It's a great simulation of what happens in the real world, blood glucose and health wise and on track and driving wise and you're still shooting insulin, right? You're MDI correct. I am injecting insulin. And I think some some of my friends might look at me sideways. If If I said that I was shooting everything. So
Unknown Speaker 16:23
you know, parents, I do
Charlie Kimball 16:25
inject insulin, multiple daily injections, right? And I've, over the years, I've sort of evolved which insulins I've been using. I think the nice thing for me, at least being partnered with Novo Nordisk for over 12 years now is the ability to keep up with those insulin developments. And I'm using tresiba and fiasco on multiple daily injections to keep up with my blood sugar's Yeah,
Scott Benner 16:54
I have to say that it within the community and the people I speak to who are MDI, when we talk about long acting insulin, TriCity, but appears to me to be the one that people talk about. Every time I don't I I so don't know what the other one is. Because I don't hear it mimic back to me and my daughter uses a pump. So we're not we're not using it, but I can't hear anything but great stuff about it, especially what they talk about is how it it has coverage for far greater than 24 hours how it kind of overlaps itself. People love that.
Charlie Kimball 17:27
And if I can, I think if I remember correctly, the the numbers that I remember reading and I think it may even be in the package insert. I'm not 100% sure on that. But if you've been taking it for eight days, it can last in your body up to 42 hours. And it's right because I actually ran the number 42 on my IndyCar at the Indy 500.
Scott Benner 17:53
Because of that,
Charlie Kimball 17:54
because of the the duration of action. Plus I got to borrow it from at that time I was driving for Chip Ganassi racing my Chip Ganassi racing teammate. The their NASCAR car number was 42, as well. So there was the there were these really cool parallels and we had 42 names of people, either the developers of the molecule of Trey Seba or, and family members of mine supporters, my health care team, other people within the diabetes community on the racecar that year, which was a lot of fun.
Scott Benner 18:28
I wonder if people know how rigorous it is to drive the car because, you know, you're saying something earlier, and I didn't quite finish my thought about it, but you're getting an adrenaline boost, but there's still activity, they're fighting with each other. And so, if you were just doing that physicality, without the adrenaline you might see a lower blood sugar. And if you had the adrenaline without the physicality, you'd see a higher one. It's just, it's an interesting balance, how those two things are both working against you. And yet they're, they're helping to balance each other out. It's a, I don't know how much people think about that when they talk about activity and diabetes.
Charlie Kimball 19:03
I'm the son of an engineer, my dad's mechanical engineering and design racecars. So that's how I got involved in and I have such a linear mind. I, I mean, diabetes sometimes frustrates me because in engineering and in math, one plus one always equals two. In diabetes, sometimes one plus one equals banana. It doesn't always make sense. But the perspective that I use the analogy is that there's this this old school balance scale, and on one side, there are certain things that raise blood sugar, dehydration, adrenalin, carbohydrates, illness, and on the other side, there are things that lower blood sugar, exercise, insulin, hydration, things, you know, things like that. And so, it to me, it's interesting that in the race car. I've got things on both sides of the balance scale in play.
Scott Benner 20:04
Yeah. No, you hear people talk about, especially a lot with their children. They don't understand why. For instance, baseball practice doesn't make their kids blood sugar up at a baseball game does until you realize that without the actual competition of the game, you don't have the adrenaline. It's just that and it wouldn't to the naked eye, make a difference? You're playing baseball, it makes sense that they, you know, both situations would be the same, but they're not. Have you made a baby since the last time I saw, by the way, before I asked you that? Do you know you were on the 25th episode of this podcast? And if this shakes out, right, this episode is going to be the 300 and 25th episode of the podcast. So I have to thank you for lending me some gravitas in the beginning when I didn't deserve any. Because I was just starting out when when you're on the first time and the podcast is blown up. It's going to hit 2 million downloads very soon. So
Charlie Kimball 20:54
I appreciate that. That's incredible. Congratulations. Thank you. A lot of hard work and amazing and I'm I feel honored to have been there early on. and honored to now be back on talking about how life has changed. And and you were I think you're gonna say life has changed, right? Yes, very much. So. And outside of this global pandemic, life has changed. My wife and I have actually welcomed two very healthy children into our lives. And ever since we spoke, we have a toddler, a little girl. And then two months ago, just about the time I was heading to St. Pete for the first race of the 2020 season, we welcomed a healthy baby boy into our lives. So while the work from home situation and not being at a racetrack isn't quite how I envisioned these last two months, it's been an unintended unexpected and much appreciated. Slight paternity leave, it's been chaos, because two kids under the age of two, with a newborn, and being stuck at home is extremely challenging sometimes. But at the same time, I would never give back this time with my family. And as far as silver linings go, it's pretty special.
Scott Benner 22:21
We have the same feeling here. And I'm sure a lot of people who are lucky enough to be able to do their job from their home or you know, or in your situation where your job just sort of been slid into a different time frame. But I as sad as I am for my son to have missed out on what he missed out on this year. It's so great that he's here. I try not even to tell him but you know, he's 20 he shouldn't be here right now. And instead he's walking through the house and we're having conversations about things we wouldn't normally have. It's been really wonderful. Hey, the good news for you is your your new son was born early enough that next year, you will not have to endure a ton of pandemic baby jokes, people will see that he's a little older, and they won't think that you made him out of boredom during this time.
Charlie Kimball 23:01
Very true. I mean, it's you. It's interesting because you obviously work from home, typically, right. And while I think a lot of people would see that my job at the racetrack is the only time I work as a racing driver. It's not actually the case, as a racing driver driving the race car being at the racetrack is only about 15 or 20% of my life as a racing driver. The rest, I'm working from home, or working at home, headed to the gym or working with my engineers, my mechanics, developing strategies with my partners doing media obligations, things like that. So while it it looks different, and not going to the racetrack is something that's been an adjustment for sure. working from home for me is kind of normal, setting up the garage in the gym and, and finding that if I filled a five gallon bucket with sand and water to the right level, I could have a heavy enough weight to do the work I needed. That's new instead of going into my gym. But being at my desk and working from home is kind of normal, managing my blood sugar while eating at home and figuring out what activities and exercise look like stuck at home is more normal for me then I think a lot of people would expect
Scott Benner 24:34
Well, you know what you might find? bizarre, but maybe you want my daughter's 15 she'll be 16 this summer. She's a sophomore in high school. And normally her overnight bazel rate is around a unit and her daytime basal rate is closer to two units. And when school ended, she got home and she became acclimated with working from home. Her 24 hour basal rate went down to a unit an hour. So what ever happens at school? I don't want to, you know, say it's anxiety or stress, because I don't honestly know what it is exactly. But something about being at school requires her bazel to be almost doubled. And really,
Charlie Kimball 25:13
it's, it's really interesting to me because my, I haven't seen a significant change in my dosage calculations. Because I've been, like I said, I've been trying to keep my workouts up and still working virtually and digitally with my trainer and my gym. And now that the weather's getting a little bit better, we're in May, we're taking my wife and I are taking our kids out for walks around the neighborhood, we put them in the the wagon and go for a walk and, and enjoy being outside as much as we can safely and socially distant.
Scott Benner 25:55
Do you find yourself walking in an oval? Or do you just go wherever the wind takes you?
Charlie Kimball 25:59
Well, that's the nice thing about the IndyCar Series is at different races, we turn both left and right. So I have the ability to create my own little street circuit through the neighborhood with
Scott Benner 26:10
the wagon chose the driver does not feel forced to just try to turn one way. I, I have to say I was it was really nice to meet you in person. And, you know, I, I wonder if I want to ask how tall you are? Would you share that with me?
Charlie Kimball 26:25
I am about 510, depending on the day and the weight of the world between 510 and 511.
Scott Benner 26:30
So that's incredibly interesting to me, because you're not much taller than me. But when I'm standing next to you, I feel like you're a different species. And I'm three feet tall. So you're just in incredible shape. I stand there and I go, how are we both men? That's bizarre. And but but my point was, is I was wondering, is there a height limit to being in that car? Like, could you be an amazing driver but be too tall Ford? or could they build a car to accommodate different heights?
Charlie Kimball 26:55
The answer is yes, there are height limits on both sides. Because if you're too small, if you're built like a jockey, wonderful for racing horses, not wonderful for holding on to 650 700 800 horses, and no power steering and an IndyCar if you're not big enough to hold on to the car and get in a force through the brake pedal, and through the steering wheel over the bumps and things like that. You won't be competitive. And if you're too tall, you when you're wedged into the cockpit, you never get comfortable. So you never get relaxed to feel all of the information and all the messages that the car is telling you more than what's happening in your hands and your feet. You get messages through your shoulders and your back and your legs. That if you're you're wedged in there if you you're shoehorned in there, you never get comfortable and are never very good at it. I there was there are really competitive drivers, as Graham Ray Hall, I think is the tallest at the moment. And he's six foot 364 maybe. And he's our he's pushing the the upper limit of the height required or height, height opportunity in the IndyCar. So,
Scott Benner 28:17
hey, you know, I know we went over this before, but it was five years ago. I'm wondering do you still manage your blood sugar's in race the same way? like can you see your blood sugar in front of you? How does it work with the pit crew? It just would be interesting if you could, I know we're up on our time. But I'd love to hear about that. Before we go.
Charlie Kimball 28:32
I've got a couple extra minutes especially to talk about this because I think over the last few years, I've continued to evolve how I interpret the data that I get. So my tip starting at the beginning my IndyCar is different than everyone else's, because obviously my body is different, my pancreas is different. I wear a continuous glucose monitor, my receiver plugs into the car's data system. So on my steering wheel, I have speed laptime oil pressure, blood glucose, water temperature, car and body data right there together. And the cool thing is not only can I see that number in that data, but it's transmitted back to the pit lane. So the engineers that are making sure the cars running right underneath me can make sure that my body's running right. If I get I have my hands full racing side by side for at 225 miles an hour. And the nice thing about that is I know where I am, I know where I am on within that lane of blood glucose I like to see during competition and most IndyCar drivers have a drink bottle to stay hydrated throughout the event. My car again is different in that I have to drink bottles, one full of water. And the second one we use a sports drink with extra glucose in it. So it's about it's pretty intense. I think it's about 30 grams of carbs. For six fluid ounces, so it's a, it packs a punch, so to speak. And those two bottles come together at a valve that my dad the engineer designed, we got 3d printed, and it mounts right on my seat belt. So while I'm racing, depending on what my body needs either water for hydration, or that drink mix for glucose, I can switch that Valve back and forth to to bring my blood sugar's up if needed. Because even though the adrenaline of racing is intense, I find the physicality, I'm more conscious of my blood sugar burning off during a race. And that's having said that, I'm sorry, I've never needed that drink mix to keep going during an event that comes down to the preparation I do before I get in the car.
Scott Benner 30:49
So even though you have that available to you, you've never had to hit that that drink while you're driving because of how well you've got your, I guess your pre meal rituals and your insulin, all that stuff set up?
Charlie Kimball 31:00
Yes, wow. That's what I'm saying. And I feel very fortunate that I have the tools and the routine and the discipline before I get in the cockpit to not need that backup plan. It's there as a backup plan. And if I needed it, I would be very grateful to have it. But I'm glad that the work that I do with my healthcare team. I work with Dr. Anne Peters at USC medical in California, and working with my race team to make sure that I've got the right meal that's weighed carb and protein counted before the race. So that just like the mechanics spend hours making sure every nut and bolt is tight, and every fluid water fuel oil is topped up, making sure the racecar is prepared. My job is to make sure that my body is prepared. One of the things in sports is we talk about the evolution of the athlete and in racing. And in IndyCar the cars have almost reached a limit. And I'm not going to say the limit of physics but the limit of the rules. And so one of the easy ways to find a competitive advantage is within the drivers in the athletes. So we as athletes have had to learn about our bodies, we've had to learn about how to train we've had to learn about cognitive function preparation and doing I hand coordination work in the gym. And that's part of why I've continued to evolve and learn from the data that I'm getting out of the race car, and learn about the insulins that are available, so that I'm continuing to progress as a patient. And as an athlete.
Scott Benner 32:45
It's funny you bring that up because as I was thinking about you this morning, before I did this, I was thinking about how seamless the race looks. And in my mind, it started thinking about how easy it looks to hit a you know, a fat Major League fastball when you're watching it on television, or, you know, a wide receiver drops the ball, I can't believe you didn't catch that. Meanwhile, he just ran 70 yards and three seconds. And you know, there's a man behind him smacking him in the head. And but you know, but the people who don't do it, it just looks like the way it's supposed to be if we could get in a time machine and go back, we'd watch Babe Ruth and think this is the pinnacle of what baseball is. But if but athletes continue to get better and better and stronger. If you look at what a baseball player looked like 20 years ago versus today. They don't even appear to be the same people. And and that's probably, you know, I you know, as you were saying, and I thought while I was right, I couldn't believe I was right as I guess why I brought it up. But it's just amazing to watch those cars, how close they are. They're moving, almost like they're attached to each other, you know, through turns and everything. And that's just it's astonishing to see in person. I don't know if I ever appreciated it on television.
Charlie Kimball 33:55
I find that I find that if we have friends or people come out to the racetrack for the first time. A lot of my friends actually said Oh, we'll come to a race and support you. And now their race fan. Yeah, I mean, they they tune in and are paying a lot of close attention. And I think one of the things actually going back a little bit that I missed about the the setup in my car that's different is all of that work was part of that evolution. You know, part every time I get in the car I learn. And those pieces were developed in combination with IndyCar, under IndyCar medical and safety. And with my health care team, and with my exercise physiologist, and with my trainer and being able to look back at the data of my performance and my my diabetes management performance and and start to develop ties and information about how that all plays together. Is it more than levels the playing field of the mental piece of managing my diabetes? I think in fact, I've said it before. And I'll say it again, I am a better racing driver, because of my diabetes rather than despite it.
Scott Benner 35:16
The preparation is for diabetes. It's all very similar. I was wondering, and I will let you go. But what range do you try to race? And like, when you look up at that Dexcom number? Where do you hope to be?
Charlie Kimball 35:27
My aim? Originally, years ago, 10 years ago, when I started in IndyCar, we used to Dr. Peters, and I would say, Oh, we just want to be above 190, to make sure I'm safe. Well, as I've learned, as I've gotten better, as I've gotten more confident in my control, Indy cars got more confident with me as a racing driver with diabetes, we've narrowed that window down based on performance as well as safety. And that that ideal range for me is in that 150 to 175. Number. Yeah, which is higher than I would be on a normal day, right. But it allows that blood sugar to climb before I see vision, focus concentration challenges, and allows it to fall. And I'm not worried about putting myself or the other drivers on the track at risk. It's a really healthy middle road, middle ground, middle of the road number
Scott Benner 36:27
low enough where your body can still perform the way you need it to. When you pit
Charlie Kimball 36:31
Have you ever taken insulin? Like Have you ever been like I need fast but I come in? Not during a pitstop in a race now. It's not something that's like I said, the one place where I noticed the adrenaline you were talking earlier about baseball between practice and races, right. And one of the comments I wanted to make quickly was that the Indy 500 is the largest one day attended sporting event in the world. I see a because it's so big. It's the biggest race in the world. In my mind, I see a bigger bump of adrenaline at the start of that race than any other event I go to Yeah. And 5060 miles into the 500 miles, that adrenaline settles in and my blood sugar, I have a 20 or 30 point bump. And I know that 50 or 60 miles in it's gonna settle back down to where it was.
Scott Benner 37:28
That's the interesting thing about paying about adrenaline is that while it's there, it's very impactful on your blood sugar with the minute it's gone. It doesn't hold the number it you it comes back again. Makes it indeed Yeah. That's very interesting. Charlie, I genuinely appreciate you coming back and doing this. And I hope you and your family are safe and washing your hands and congratulations on your new son. A lots going on for you except for racing. So let's get you back into those cars and and watch this happen as fast and safely as possible.
Charlie Kimball 37:59
Absolutely, I appreciate it, Scott. And I think if people I mean I've said it before, but I always appreciate now is it a two time dad a great dad joke, but if people want to keep up to speed with me, they can follow me on twitter at race with insulin as well. You know when you said earlier, one plus one equals banana with diabetes. I thought one plus one often equals
Scott Benner 38:19
I need to eat a banana with diabetes. But give it give that time where you add Instagram Twitter where you at?
Charlie Kimball 38:28
So on twitter at race with insulin on Instagram at Charlie Kimball. My Websites Charlie kimball.com. And for other information about the race with insulin program, there's race with insulin.com as well. I'll put that in the show notes too, so people can click on it if they'd like. Thanks again and have a great day. You too. Thanks, Scott. hicker.
Scott Benner 38:49
Huge thanks to Charlie for coming on the show. Hey, listen, Charlie is a paid spokesperson for Novo Nordisk I think you can figure that out because the words fiasco Pinterest CBRE all over his IndyCar. But this was not paid episode. They didn't sponsor this or anything. I just like Charlie and I wanted to have him back on. If you want to support the show today, go to diabetes pro tip COMM And check out the pro tip series that I did with the CDE Jenny Smith. If you've already checked out the pro tip series, and you know how valuable it is. share it with a friend. Thanks so much. I hope you enjoyed this bonus episode of the podcast. There'll be another one tomorrow with Tomas from Dexcom you guys I'm giving away so much this weekend. I'm crazy. It's like one of those a guy comes on he's like we're selling the furniture. It's like so cheap. It was so fucking and then the guy's like he got like plaid pants on and he starts talking about the prices are insane. So I'm just like, I don't know, I've got so much content like I hate sitting on it for so long. So this weekend, you getting free shows, no ads, the listen to good content, really. I'm benevolent when you stop and think about it. If this episode was sponsored, it would be sponsored by Omni pod Dexcom touched by type one, and the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. And I only mentioned that because they're right good people. And there are still links in the show notes, your podcast player, if you know you mean, what's it, it's, I don't wanna lose the opportunity to remind you that if you click on the links, it helps the podcast, not just you, I mean, it's gonna help you immensely, you're gonna get a first rate CGM, the only tubeless insulin pump that anybody with any sense would wear the best blood glucose meter I've ever used in my entire life and a link to possibly the most lovely Type One Diabetes organization on the face of the planet. So I mean, yes, it helps me when you click on the links, but by helps me. Here's what I really mean by that. It means that when the time comes again for us, they say, shake hands and say, Would you like to sponsor the podcast again for another year? And they say yes, that lets me keep making the podcast. You know, these people did not sponsor diabetes pro tip calm, but they're why it exists there. Why I have the time to do it. So I guess you can look at it anyway you want. Support the sponsors? support the show, where they used to say on that hero show, remember that the first like comic book TV show was a save the homeless. Heroes save. I can't remember. Save the cheerleader, save the world. So think about that. And then just take out the word cheerleader. Right, and the word save. And then what you say is support instead of save support the sponsors instead of cheerleader so instead of save the cheerleaders support the sponsors. And then instead of save the world, it's support the podcast. So save the cheerleader save the world. I think that's clear. And there's no way you can come to the conclusion that I've been locked in this house for too long.
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