Move to Foyt’s Team Reinvigorates Kanaan in Drive toward Second Indianapolis Victory
April 10, 2018 | By Paul Kelly, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Tony Kanaan’s calendar has been circled since last June. The Month of May, the most wonderful time of his year, is almost upon us.
“That’s what I live for,” Kanaan said of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. “On June 1, I’m already counting there’s 364 days to go. If I’m racing or not racing, I want to be there.”
Kanaan, 43, remains one of the top competitors of the Verizon IndyCar Series in his 21st season of major North American open-wheel racing. He will attempt to make his 17th career Indianapolis 500 start in the 102nd edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on Sunday, May 27.
While Kanaan has completed 2,765 laps during his illustrious Indianapolis 500 career, this year’s race represents a fresh start. Kanaan joined AJ Foyt Racing this year in a match of arguably the most popular current driver in the field with arguably the most popular driver in “500” history.
While legendary team owner A.J. Foyt hails from Texas and Kanaan from Brazil, there are plenty of similarities between the two men in their careers.
Both are winners of the world’s greatest race, with Foyt being the first to four victories (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977) and Kanaan scoring an emotional win in 2013. Both share the record for the most Indianapolis 500 races led, with 13. And both are uncompromising in their pursuit of victory.
Kanaan, even in his early 40s, continues to partake in a vigorous training regimen that has made him one of the fittest drivers in the series. He is an accomplished triathlete who competed in the Kona Ironman in October 2011, all with the intent of keeping his edge while in the famed No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet.
Foyt, 83, has overcome a variety of recent health challenges and is as sharp as ever on the pit wall. Scenes of Super Tex pounding his engine with a hammer during an unscheduled pit stop in the 1982 Indianapolis 500 or dropping a laptop computer in disgust his pit stall during the 1998 race belie a technical mind that remains keen and current even though he last turned fast laps in an Indy car in 1993.
“He’s relentless,” Kanaan said. “He knows so much. Even though the guy hasn’t raced in almost 30 years, he knows so much about racing and mechanics and how the car works that it’s impressive. How somebody can still keep up … the cars that he raced 40, 50 years ago were not the same. They’re still race cars but not the same. That impresses me a lot.”
Eric Cowdin also joined AJ Foyt Racing as technical director, coming with Kanaan to the team from Chip Ganassi Racing. Cowdin and Kanaan have worked together for more than a decade, all the way back to his early days with Andretti Autosport. Development director Travis Jacobson and mechanics Mark Sampson and Tomihiro Takase also made the move from Ganassi to Foyt with Kanaan.
“The adjustment has been easy,” Kanaan said. “I brought some familiar faces with me to the team. My engineer, a few of my mechanics, so that wasn’t a hard transition.
“Spending time with A.J. is a thrill. The stories, the jokes. He’s a funny guy and has so many things I can learn from him. It’s definitely one of the cool experiences I get to tell my kids one day I experienced in my career.”
Another new, fun wrinkle this season for Kanaan is working with his new teammate and fellow Brazilian, Matheus Leist. As the elder statesman among drivers in the Verizon IndyCar Series, Kanaan is used to working with younger drivers. But Leist is only 19, the youngest driver in the series, and was born in 1998 – Kanaan’s first season driving in CART.
“I think I have a lot of advantages,” Leist said. “I’m with two guys (Foyt and Kanaan) who know the place pretty much more than anyone else. These guys know how to win. Hopefully they teach me well, and I can be winning races at Indy, as well.”
Kanaan’s Indianapolis victory in 2013 was one of the most emotional, thrilling and popular in recent memory. He finally earned a spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy in his 12th start, diving beneath Ryan Hunter-Reay and Carlos Munoz in a daring move on a restart with three laps to go to secure the victory at a race-record average speed of 187.433 mph.
The post-race scene in Victory Lane provided a measure of the respect for Kanaan in the IndyCar paddock, as rival after rival burrowed through the throng to embrace Kanaan and offer congratulations. It was a magic moment that Kanaan admits will be tough to top – but he wants to try this May.
“Your first one you never forget,” Kanaan said. “And I think the way mine was, I don’t think we can beat that. But I’ll take another one any time. It will be a different experience and a different story to tell.”