Tony Kanaan’s 18-year career at the Indianapolis 500 has provided his fans with a lifetime of memories.
As Kanaan prepares for what could be his final Indianapolis 500, now scheduled for Aug. 23 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the part-time driver for A.J. Foyt Racing hopes to give them another moment to remember.
“They made me feel like the most important person in the world,” Kanaan said. “My biggest fear after I won the 500 in 2013, instead of even enjoying the thing, it was like, ‘Man, I’m going to come back next year and people are not going to cheer for me anymore, now that I did it.’”
But fans have continued to cheer and appreciate Kanaan because of his fearlessly aggressive ability and popular personality.
“I want to thank them,” Kanaan said. “I don’t think I can express how important they were on many of my decisions in my life, and I think that’s why I made sure I talked about them individually because they are everything.
“Without them, none of us would be here. I’m not done, so I don’t want anybody to be sad. This is a happy day. This is something that I’ll have more time for them. The races that I’m not coming, I’m probably going to be a lot more engaged with the fans, which I couldn’t do when I was racing full time.”
Now, 45, Kanaan first arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as an Indy 500 rookie in 2002. He was already one of CART’s most-promising drivers. Kanaan had been racing full time in that series since 1998 and claimed his first victory in 1999 at Michigan Int’l Speedway, driving a car owned by Gerry Forsythe.
He joined Mo Nunn’s team in 2000 and made his Indianapolis 500 debut.
Kanaan was fast from the start of practice and continued to get faster throughout the month. He started fifth and was leading the race when he hit a patch of oil and crashed between turns three and four.
Indianapolis 500 fans liked what they saw from the talented CART driver, who returned to his series for the remainder of the season. His effort in the Indy 500 earned him the Rookie of the Year Award.
In 2003, Kanaan became a full-time driver in the Indy Racing League for Andretti-Green Racing. At Indy, Kanaan started second and finished third in a race won by Team Penske’s Gil de Ferran.
In 2004, Kanaan started fifth and finished second in a rain-shortened Indy 500 won by Buddy Rice. He claimed his only IndyCar Series championship that year, finishing every lap of every race during the season.
He won the pole in 2005 and finished eighth in a race won by Andretti teammate Dan Wheldon. In 2006, Kanaan started fifth and finished fifth in the 500.
Kanaan appeared primed for the victory in 2007 when he started second and dominated the first half of the race before rain brought out the red flag on lap 112. But the race was restarted four hours later and Kanaan was involved in an accident.
However, the damage was repaired and Kanaan remained on the lead lap. Still, he finished 12th when it rained again and the race was deemed official after 166 laps.
By 2008, Kanaan’s fans were wondering when “TK” would finally win the Indianapolis 500. He drew the loudest cheers every year. Kanaan continued to be fast in qualifications with sixth-place starts in 2008 and ’09. Unfortunately, crashes took him out in both races.
In 2010, Kanaan started last in the 33-car field. However, once the green flag waved, Kanaan gave his fans something to remember.
At the start of the race, Kanaan had passed seven cars by the time he made it out of turn two. He raced his way to second place before ending up out of sequence on his pit stops. He finished 11th.
“I got out of the car after we didn’t win,” Kanaan recalled. “We didn’t win; we finished 11th and the entire place was just clapping and screaming my name.
“I got the same feeling as the winner. Everybody was congratulating me, telling me good job, so I guessed in the back of my mind, it was a consolation that I hadn’t won this race yet. At that time, I didn’t know if I was going to.
“That was a very, very special day and I had only finished 11th,” Kanaan added. “The people were clapping as if I had won. I think people felt my pain and my quest of winning this thing.”
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