Tony Kanaan’s son Leo receives “Mini Baby Borg” from BorgWarner

By Jan 16, 2014, 11:00 AM EST
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As the latest event in the post-Indianapolis 500 victory tour, Tony Kanaan and KV Racing Technology team co-owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser all received their “Baby Borgs” from BorgWarner on Wednesday night in Detroit. The “Baby Borg” is a small-size scale of the iconic, legendary Borg-Warner Trophy that all winning drivers and team owners receive.

But what “TK” didn’t know there was a special surprise coming: a “Mini Baby Borg,” the first of its kind in a one-off creation for Tony’s 6-year-old son Leonardo. That was the emotional, heartwarming, best part of the night as now the father-and-son team had matching father-and-son “Baby Borgs.”

“Oh it was big time … of course, I was prepared to give my own Baby Borg away to my son,” Tony Kanaan explained in a phone interview last night. “But BorgWarner came with this big surprise, and now my son has two trophies. He’s extremely excited. It was an emotional moment for me regardless, and then when they brought that up, it was difficult to hold my emotions.”

Kanaan said he was almost “relieved” he’d be able to keep his own Baby Borg, but delighted nonetheless.

Since winning his elusive first Indianapolis 500 last May, Kanaan embarked on the post-victory media tour, had his face engraved on the actual BorgWarner Trophy, and now has his Baby Borg. Of all the post-winning activities, this immediately moved to the top of the list.

“Nothing’s gonna top what happened tonight. Obviously it’s my son – we dedicated the win to him,” he said. “Tonight will top it big time. It’s the first time BorgWarner has done something like this – which is trouble going forward, but it’s not my problem now!”

Kanaan had a friendly joke too at his good friend, and driver he’ll be replacing in the No. 10 Target Chevrolet for Target Chip Ganassi Racing this year, Dario Franchitti.

“It’s awesome … I can’t thank those guys enough for what they’ve done. It shows how supportive they are, and them being the official trophy since ’47?… ’36 here we go. So as long as Dario’s been alive, he was born in ’35. It’s good to be as enthusiastic as we are for what we do. The whole story makes it extremely special.”

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

By May 29, 2023, 6:01 PM EDT
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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33.  Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports