Tony Kanaan finds Pocono’s 'Fountain of Youth' - MotorSportsTalk

LONG POND, Pennsylvania – In his prime, there were few racers fiercer, determined, tenacious and aggressive than Tony Kanaan. His driving style was once described as watching a “Pit Bull chasing a Pork Chop.”

That, however, was a very long time ago, during his glory days in the old 7-Eleven Honda at what was then called Andretti Green Racing.

Sure, Kanaan would enjoy more moments of glory with other teams, including his lone Indianapolis 500 victory in 2013 for KV Racing.

Over time, however, Kanaan could not find the right combination to return him to the level that made him a fan favorite. He thought he had it at Chip Ganassi Racing from 2014-2017, but instead of contending for championships, it was a challenge to finish the season in the top-10 in the standings.

His last IndyCar Series victory came in the final race of the 2014 season at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

By 2017, Kanaan left Ganassi and joined AJ Foyt Racing, owned by the cantankerous and irascible American racing legend who was the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 four times in his career. Foyt hired the driver from Brazil, because “he races like I did.”

Instead of returning to a highly competitive level, watching Kanaan try to get up to speed in the No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet was like watching Michael Jordan play basketball for the Washington Wizards instead of the Chicago Bulls.

He finished 16^thin last year’s standings and enters Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 18^thin the NTT IndyCar Series championship.

At 44, Tony Kanaan is the oldest driver in the NTT IndyCar Series. He turned Saturday’s practice session into a “Blast from the Past” as the fastest driver with a speed of 216.354 miles per hour in the No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing.

“I was happy with my car in traffic,” Kanaan said. “We can all run close in traffic. We worked hard in traffic because of where I’m going to start. Trying to find the right adjustments to be able to keep up is what we did all afternoon.

“I don’t think you will see anybody dominating this race. It’s a tough track. That’s all we can do. We will try to pull a TK start on it, gain five or six positions, put ourselves in the top 10. It’s a 500-mile race; a lot can happen.

“This has always been a good track for us. We always ran strong on the superspeedways. I’m happy. It’s a good day for us. Bummer for qualifying that we didn’t have a chance to do it. I’ll take it. It’s been a while since we have been that competitive.”

Because the starting lineup is based on points, Kanaan will start way back in 18^thplace.

“It’s quite a ways in the back, but we will fix that Sunday,” Kanaan said. “We’re having a very difficult year. Anything we can do to motive ourselves; we are doing right now.

“This will help pump the guys up.”

Team owner AJ Foyt was not at the track Saturday, choosing to stay at his ranch in south Texas.

“He knows already,” Kanaan said. “I have to call him to come up here for the race.”

As former Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson once said, “We’re talking about practice….practice!”

That is true. Who knows where Kanaan would have qualified if the qualifying session had not been cancelled because early-morning rain and the lack of a medical helicopter able to fly through the storm forced INDYCAR to come up with an alternate schedule.

Kanaan’s speed won’t be rewarded in the starting lineup, but it may be significant in the race.

“It’s a shame, but it’s not something we can control,” Kanaan said. “We made the best out of it in this session. I was pretty confident coming to Pocono that we had a very competitive car. We were pretty competitive at the Indianapolis 500 and it’s a similar setup to what we used.

“I’m happy. Starting in the back, at this track, is not easy, but this was a good day for us.”

In the 103^rdIndianapolis on May 26, Kanaan’s Chevrolet was competitive, but he ran out of fuel, and went down one lap. He was able to race his way from 23^rdand finish ninth on the lead lap.

“We have a pretty good possibility to have our best finish of the year, here,” Kanaan said. “We’ll put ourselves in the top 10 and go from there.”

Despite the disappointing season, Kanaan and his crew have stuck together.

“There is no mystery how much we are struggling,” Kanaan said. “That has taken a toll on the team. It’s not us. It’s really easy to point fingers at each other and we are not doing that.

“I’m not the type of person that gives up very easily. We can’t hide that we are struggling. It’s not the first time I have been in this position and it won’t be the last time. We have a lot to go. I have nothing to prove.

“All I can do is put my head down and work with the team to make them better. That’s all I can do.”

INDIANAPOLIS – Alex Palou had not turned a wheel wrong the entire Month of May at the Indy 500 until Rinus VeeKay turned a wheel into the Chip Ganassi Racing pole-sitter leaving pit road on Lap 94.

“There is nothing I could have done there,” Palou told NBC Sports. “It’s OK, when it is my fault or the team’s fault because everybody makes mistakes. But when there is nothing, you could have done differently there, it feels bad and feels bad for the team.”

Marcus Ericsson was a master at utilizing the “Tail of the Dragon” move that breaks the draft of the car behind him in the closing laps to win last year’s Indianapolis 500. On Sunday, however, the last of three red flags in the final 16 laps of the race had the popular driver from Sweden breathing fire after Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden beat him at his own game on the final lap to win the Indianapolis 500.

Despite the two disappointments, team owner Chip Ganassi was seen on pit road fist-bumping a member on his four-car team in this year’s Indianapolis 500 after his drivers finished second, fourth, sixth and seventh in the tightly contested race.

Those are pretty good results, but at the Indianapolis 500, there is just one winner and 32 losers.

“There is only one winner, but it was a hell of a show,” three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Chip Ganassi Racing consultant Dario Franchitti told NBC Sports. “Alex was very fast, and he got absolutely caught out in somebody else’s wreck. There was nothing he could have done, but he and the 10 car, great recovery.

“Great recovery by all four cars because at half distance, we were not looking very good.”

After 92 laps, the first caution flew for Sting Ray Robb of Dale Coyne Racing hitting the Turn 1 wall.

During pit stops on Lap 94, Palou had left his stall when the second-place car driven by VeeKay ran into him, putting Palou’s Honda into the wall. The car sustained a damaged front wing, but the Chip Ganassi crew was able to get him back in the race on the lead lap but in 28^th position.

Palou ultimately would fight his way to a fourth-place finish in a race the popular Spaniard could have won. His displeasure with VeeKay, whom he sarcastically called “a legend” on his team radio after the incident, was evident.

“The benefit of being on pole is you can drive straight and avoid crashes, and he was able to crash us on the side on pit lane, which is pretty tough to do, but he managed it,” Palou told NBC Sports. “Hopefully next year we are not beside him. Hopefully, next year we have a little better luck.”

Palou started on the pole and led 36 laps, just three fewer than race leader Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren Racing.

“We started really well, was managing the fuel as we wanted, our car was pretty good,” Palou said. “Our car wasn’t great, we dropped to P4 or P5, but we still had some good stuff.

“On the pit stop, the 21 (VeeKay) managed to clip us. Nothing we could have done there. It was not my team’s fault or my fault.

“We had to drop to the end. I’m happy we made it back to P4. We needed 50 more laps to make it happen, but it could have been a lot worse after that contact.

“I learned a lot, running up front at the beginning and in mid-pack and then the back. I learned a lot.

“It feels amazing when you win it and not so good when things go wrong. We were a bit lucky with so many restarts at the end to make it back to P4 so I’m happy with that.”

Palou said the front wing had to be changed and the toe-in was a bit off, but he still had a fast car.

In fact, his Honda was the best car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway all month. His pole-winning four lap average speed of 234.217 miles per hour around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a record for this fabled race.

Palou looked good throughout the race, before he had to scratch and claw and race his way back to the top-five after he restarted 28^th.

In the Indianapolis 500, however, the best car doesn’t always win.

“It’s two years in a row that we were leading the race at the beginning and had to drop to last,” Palou said. “Maybe next year, we will start in the middle of the field and go on to win the race.

“I know he didn’t do it on purpose. It’s better to let that pass someday.”

Palou said the wild racing at the end was because the downforce package used in Sunday’s race means the drivers have to be aggressive. The front two cars can battle for the victory, but cars back in fourth or fifth place can’t help determine the outcome of the race.

That is when the “Tail of the Dragon” comes into the play.

Franchitti helped celebrate Ericsson’s win in 2022 with his “Tail of the Dragon” zigzag move – something he never had to do in any of his three Indianapolis 500 victories because they all finished under caution.

In 2023, however, IndyCar Race Control wants to make every attempt to finish the race under green, without going past the scheduled distance like NASCAR’s overtime rule.

Instead of extra laps, they stop the race with a red flag, to create a potential green-flag finish condition.

“You do what you have to do to win within the rules, and it’s within the rules, so you do it,” Franchitti said. “The race is 200 laps and there is a balance.

“Marcus did a great job on that restart and so did Josef. It was just the timing of who was where and that was it.

“If you knew it was going to go red, you would have hung back on the lap before.

“Brilliant job by the whole Ganassi organization because it wasn’t looking very good at half-distance.

“Full marks to Josef Newgarden and Team Penske.”

Franchitti is highly impressed by how well Ericsson works with CGR engineer Brad Goldberg and how close this combination came to winning the Indianapolis 500 two-years-in-a-row.

It would have been the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002.

“Oh, he’s a badass,” Franchitti said Ericsson. “He proved it last year. He is so calm all day. What more do you need? As a driver, he’s fast and so calm.”

Ericsson is typically in good spirits and jovial.

He was stern and direct on pit road after the race.

“I did everything right, I did an awesome restart, caught Josef off-guard and pulled away,” Ericsson said on pit lane. “It’s hard to pull away a full lap and he got me back.

“I’m mostly disappointed with the way he ended. I don’t think it was fair and safe to do that restart straight out of the pits on cold tires for everyone.

“To me, it was not a good way to end that race.

“Congrats to Josef. He didn’t do anything wrong. He is a worthy champion, but it shouldn’t have ended like that.”

Palou also didn’t understand the last restart, which was a one-start showdown.

“I know that we want to finish under green,” Palou said. “Maybe the last restart I did, I didn’t understand. It didn’t benefit the CGR team.

“I’m not very supportive of the last one, but anyway.”

Dixon called the red flags “a bit sketchy.”

“The red flags have become a theme to the end of the race, but sometimes they can catch you out,” Dixon said. “I know Marcus is frustrated with it.

“All we ask for is consistency. I think they will do better next time.

“It’s a tough race. People will do anything they can to win it and with how these reds fall, you have to be in the right place at the right time. The problem is when they throw a Red or don’t throw a Red dictates how the race will end.

“It’s a bloody hard race to win. Congrats to Josef Newgarden and to Team Penske.”

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500

Tony Kanaan finds Pocono’s ‘Fountain of Youth’

Strong rebounds for Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi amid some disappointments in the Indy 500