As the 2015 NHRA season draws to an end in this weekend’s Auto Club Finals, it has been a reflective time for legendary driver John Force.
The winningest driver in NHRA history knows he will fall short of extending his own record of Funny Car championships to 17. He comes into this weekend also knowing the highest he can finish in the final season standings will be fifth place.
But given all the transition and change that this season brought for both Force and his four-car John Force Racing operation, it’s ending on a high note – and with the promise of an even better 2016 for himself, daughters Brittany (Top Fuel) and Courtney (Funny Car) and son-in-law and JFR president Robert Hight (Funny Car).
JFR went through more change in 2015 than it had in the previous three decades. A 30-year relationship with Castrol Oil ended in 2014, replaced by Peak Antifreeze.
Then, Ford – which had powered Force for nearly 20 years – also decided to go in a different direction after 2014. Chevrolet stepped up to the plate in a big way and, between the car manufacturer and Peak, Force’s operation is in good shape for the next several years.
That’s a far cry from how Force was feeling a year ago, when JFR’s future appeared uncertain at the very least. It was bad enough to lose a sponsor that he had a 30-year relationship with.
But Ford’s departure after Castrol was such a double-whammy that for the first time in decades, Force wasn’t sure if the racing empire he had built could continue – and for how long.
Things got to the point where Force even talked about stepping aside if it meant keeping his daughters and Hight in their respective rides.
There were also changes in crew chiefs and crew members for Force’s own team, as well as changes for Brittany’s team, including picking up Monster Energy as primary sponsor after the season began. JFR also scaled back on the number of employees it had, a first for the organization.
But when the 2015 season began at Pomona, the same place it will end, with Peak and other secondary sponsors on board as well as Chevy, JFR was back in business and looking ahead to the future.
Force has repeatedly said that the adversity and uncertainty he faced has only served to make him and his organization stronger and more determined.
And while the end result for the four JFR drivers was not what they had hoped for heading into this season, they end the 2015 season with optimism for 2016, knowing that the future is much more secure and promising than it was at the end of the 2014 campaign.
“I knew this year was going to be tough but I am proud of this Peak Chevrolet team,” Force said in a team release. “We had a bunch of new sponsors and I was breaking in a new crew chief in Jon Schaffer.
“He did a great job and all my crew guys really kept me in the championship hunt until the very end. We got some wins and that is what the sponsors want and I feel like we have some momentum coming into the Auto Club Finals.”
Force uncharacteristically won just two races this season, but he has high hopes of leaving Pomona with a third.
While Funny Car counterparts Del Worsham, Jack Beckman and Tommy Johnson Jr., will be fighting for the championship, Force can focus solely on ending the season as a winner, which would build momentum heading into 2016.
He also is assured of his 30th consecutive season of finishing in the top-10 in the Funny Car standings.
“You can’t hurt the heart of a champion,” Force said. “I race from the heart and that is where I get my motivation. These young guys that have been working on my race car all year motivate me and when I put on my fire suit I feel like I am 20 years old again.”
Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California, has been Force’s home track ever since he began drag racing more than four decades ago. Not only is it his favorite track, it’s also the one he’s earned the most success at with 16 victories.
While he fell short of his 17th championship this year, a 17th career win at one of drag racing’s most legendary facilities is definitely within reach.
“Auto Club Raceway is my home track,” he said. “I sleep in my own bed and I just love driving out to the track and seeing the mountains.
“I remember driving out to the track at the start of the season and I was just excited to be racing. I will feel the same way every day driving to the races this weekend.
“I love what I do and I am lucky I get to race with my family and amazing sponsors. We are going for the win and hopefully we can have an impact on this Funny Car championship.”
INDIANAPOLIS – Few drivers in Indy 500 history have been as popular as Tony Kanaan.
Throughout his career at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that began with his first Indy 500 in 2002, the fans loved his aggressiveness on the track and his engaging personality with the fans.
The Brazilian always got the loudest cheers from the fans during driver introductions before the Indy 500.
Sunday’s 107th Indianapolis 500 would be his last time to walk up the steps for driver introductions. Kanaan announced earlier this year that it would be his final race of his IndyCar career, but not the final race as a race driver.
He will continue to compete in stock cars in Brazil and in Tony Stewart’s summer series known as the “Superstar Racing Experience” – an IROC-type series that competes at legendary short tracks around the country beginning in June.
Kanaan was the extra driver at Arrow McLaren for this year’s Indy 500 joining NTT IndyCar Series regulars Pato O’Ward of Mexico, Felix Rosenqvist of Sweden, and Alexander Rossi of northern California.
He had a sporty ride, the No. 66 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet that paid homage to McLaren’s first Indianapolis 500 victory by the late Mark Donohue for Team Penske in 1972.
Because Kanaan has meant so much to the Indianapolis 500 and the NTT IndyCar Series, the 2013 Indy 500 winner was honored before the start of the race with a special video.
It featured Kanaan sitting in the Grandstand A seats writing a love letter to the fans of this great event. Kanaan narrated the video, reciting the words in the letter and it finished with the driver putting it in an envelope and leaving it at the Yard of Bricks.
Lauren Kanaan with daughter Nina before the 107th Indy 500 (Bruce Martin Photo).
Many in the huge crowd of 330,000 fans watched the video on the large screens around the speedway. On the starting grid, Kanaan’s wife, Lauren, who bears a striking resemblance to actress Kate Beckinsale, watched with their four children.
Kanaan’s wife is an Indiana girl who was a high school basketball star in Cambridge City, Indiana.
Kanaan proposed to Lauren in 2010, and after a three-year engagement, they were married in 2013 – the year he won his only Indianapolis 500.
She has been Kanaan’s rock, and this was a moment for the family to share.
After receiving an ovation and the accolades from the crowd, Kanaan walked to his car on the starting grid and exchanged hugs with people who were important in his career.
One of those was Takuma Sato’s engineer at Chip Ganassi Racing, Eric Cowdin.
Tony Kanaan shares a moment with former engineer Eric Cowdin (Bruce Martin Photo).
Kanaan and Cowdin shared a longtime relationship dating all the way back to the Andretti Green Racing days when Kanaan was a series champion in 2004. This combination stayed together when Kanaan moved to KV Racing in 2011, then Chip Ganassi Racing from 2014-2018 followed by two years at AJ Foyt Racing.
Kanaan returned to run the four oval races for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021 in the No. 48 Honda that was shared with seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.
In 2022, Johnson ran the full IndyCar Series schedule, and Kanaan drove the No. 1 American Legion entry to a third-place finish in his only IndyCar race of the season.
Kanaan knew that 2023 would be his last Indy 500 and properly prepared himself mentally and emotionally for his long goodbye.
But one could sense the heartfelt love, gratitude, and most of all respect for this tenacious driver in the moments leading up to the start of the race.
Tony Kanaan gets emotional during an interview after the Indy 500 (Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar/ USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
“The emotions are just there,” Kanaan said. “I cried 400 times. This guy came to hug me, and I made Rocket (IndyCar Technical Director Kevin Blanch) cry. I mean, that is something.
“Yeah, it was emotional.”
Kanaan started ninth and finished 18th in a race that was very clean for the first two thirds of the race before ending in disjointed fashion with three red flags to stop the race over the final 15 laps.
“Yellows breed yellows and when you are talking about the Indianapolis 500 and a field that is so tough to pass, that happens,” Kanaan said. “It’s the Indy 500. Come on. We’ve got to leave it out there.
“Every red flag, everybody goes, I’m going to pass everybody. It’s tough to pass. It’s the toughest field, the tightest field we ever had here. It was going to happen. We knew it was going to happen.
“I wouldn’t want it any different. We left it all out there. Everybody that was out left it out.”
At one point in the second half of the race, Kanaan passed Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin by driving through the grass on the backstretch.
“That was OK, right?” Kanaan said. “That is one thing I have not done in 22 years here. Even (team owner) Sam Schmidt came to me and said, ‘That was a good one.’
On the final lap, it was Kanaan battling his boyhood friend from Brazil, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, for a mid-pack finish.
“Helio and I battling for 15th and 16th on the last lap like we’re going for the lead,” Kanaan said. “It was like, who’s playing pranks with us.
“We both went side by side on the backstretch after the checker and we saluted with each other, and I just told him actually I dropped a tear because of that, and he said, ‘I did, too.’
“We went side by side like twice. A lot of memories came to my mind, and I even said how ironic it is that we started it together and I get to battle him on the last lap of my last race.
Tony Kanaan is embraced by his wife, Lauren, after finishing 16th in the 107th Indianapolis 500 ((Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar/ USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
“It’s pretty neat. It’s a pretty cool story. He’s a great friend. My reference, a guy that I love and hate a lot throughout my career, and like he just told me — I was coming up here and he just said, who am I going to look on the time sheet when I come into the pits now, because we always said that it didn’t matter if I was — if I was 22nd and he was 23rd, my day was okay. And vice versa.
“It was a good day for me, man. What can I say? We cried on the grid.
“Not the result that we wanted. I went really aggressive on the downforce to start the race. It was wrong. Then I added downforce towards the end of the race, and it was wrong. It was just one of those days.”
After the race was over, Kanaan drove his No. 66 Honda back to the Arrow McLaren pit area and climbed out of the car to cheers of the fans that could see him. Others were focused on Josef Newgarden’s wild celebration after the Team Penske driver had won his first Indianapolis 500.
There were no tears, though, only smiles from Kanaan who closes an IndyCar career with 389 starts, 17 wins including the 2013 Indianapolis 500, 79 podiums, 13 poles, and 4,077 laps led in a 26-year career.
Kanaan came, he raced, and he raced hard.
“That’s what we did, we raced as hard as we could,” Kanaan told NBC Sports.com. “It wasn’t enough.
“The win was the only thing that mattered. If we were second or 16th, we were going to celebrate regardless.
“In a way, being 16th will stop people wondering if I’m going to come back.
“I’m ready to go. I’m ready to enjoy the time with my family, with my team and doing other things as well.”
Kanaan’s face will forever be part of the Borg-Warner Trophy as the winner of the Indianapolis 500.
“I won one and that is there, and it will always be there,” Kanaan said. “It was an awesome day.
“The way this crowd made me feel was unbelievable. I don’t regret a bit.”
Tony Kanaan hugs his son Max before the Indy 500 (Grace Hollars/IndyStar/USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
Kanaan actually announced the 2020 Indianapolis 500 would be TK’s last ride because he wanted to say goodbye to the fans.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit, the Indianapolis 500 was moved from Memorial Day Weekend to August 23 and because of COVID restrictions, fans were not allowed to attend the Indianapolis 500.
Three years later, Kanaan was finally able to say goodbye to this fans that were part of the largest crowd to see the Indianapolis 500 since the sold-out gathering for 350,000 that attended the 100th running in 2016.
“That’s it, that’s what I wanted, and I got what I wanted,” Kanaan said. “This moment was so special; I don’t want to ever spoil it again.
Tony Kanaan kisses his daughter Nina before the 107th Indy 500 (Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
“We’ve been building and growing this series as much as we can. I’m really glad and proud that I was able to be part of building something big and this year’s race was one of the biggest ones.”
Kanaan walked off pit lane and rejoined his family. He will always be part of the glorious history of the Indianapolis 500 and fans will be talking about Tony Kanaan years from now, not by what he did, but the way he did it.
“This is what it is all about,” Kanaan said on pit lane. “Having kids, be a good person. Even if you don’t win, it’s fine if you don’t, as long as you make a difference.
“Hopefully, I made a difference in this sport.
“I will always be an IndyCar driver. I will always be an Indy 500 winner and I will always make people aware of IndyCar in the way it deserves.”
