Kanaan says it's "lame" for people to think he's too old to drive at the age of 47.
Tony Kanaan, one of the more popular IndyCar drivers of this generation to race—and to win—the Indianapolis 500, nearly pulled off the improbable at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.
However, Kanaan came up short on a final two-lap dash to the checkered flag, and he finished third at the 106th Indianapolis 500, behind race winner Marcus Ericsson and runner-up Pato O’Ward.
What made Kanaan’s accomplishment so surprising and at the same time so energizing to his legion of fans was that this was his first IndyCar start of the season. He did it at the age of 47. Few expected Kanaan to be a factor on race day, despite the fact that he was solid throughout the month and even qualified on the outside of the second row.
Maybe experience had something to do with it.
But don’t bring up the age thing to Kanaan, who next year hopes to get to get another shot at the 500 and a chance to be the oldest winner in the race’s storied history. That record currently belongs to Al Unser Sr., who was 47 years, 360 days old when he won the 500 in 1987.
Tony Kanaan enjoyed another Indy 500 in the spotlight.
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Kanaan turns 48 on Dec. 31.
“Yeah, man, I think it’s such a—I cannot even say because I’m going to curse,” Kanaan said after the race. “It’s so lame that people think we’re old at 47, we can’t drive anymore. It’s crap. So, yeah, I’m ready. Ready to do it again.”
Kanaan, who owns the IndyCar ironman mark 317 consecutive race starts, lost his full-time seat in the NTT IndyCar Series for the 2020 campaign. He raced a half dozen races for A.J. Foyt Racing in 2020 and took on the ovals portion of the schedule for Chip Ganassi last year.
This year, Jimmie Johnson moved into the full-time roll, adding ovals to his schedule, effectively kicking Kanaan to the sidelines. This month, Kanaan got a chance to pilot a fifth Ganassi entry to the third-place finish, just 3.5 seconds from his second win.
And Kanaan says there’s no hard feelings with Johnson for taking his ride.
“We became really close friends,” Kanaan said of Johnson. “Probably one of the most kind human beings I’ve ever met in my life. We found sponsorship together. We shared a car. I get a phone call in December last year saying, Hey, I think I want to run a full season. I said, I didn’t expect anything less than you and I think you deserve it.
“I said, Hey, can I do with the 500 with you? Chip, the Legion (sponsor), Jimmie, myself, we made it work. It’s been an awesome experience. I enjoyed it a lot.”
Kanaan added that just because he’s not a fixture in the IndyCar paddock these days, he’s still busy.
“I still race quite a bit,” He said. “I’m doing 23 races this year, more than actually I did when I was in IndyCar. I don’t feel like I’m retiring. I mean, I know I can still drive. Of course, we have this thing that people like to talk about, age and age and age.
“But I think I’m in pretty good shape. I’ll keep doing it as long as the opportunity presents. Obviously to come back here, especially in the last two years with the team that I’m at, if it’s not there, I’m going to evaluate my chances. I don’t want to just be here to participate. I’ve done that plenty of times.
“So if I have one more shot, and that is for real, one more shot, we’ll give it a go.”
Kanaan was charging hard and appeared to be ready to give his Ganassi teammate Ericsson a run for the win before a Jimmie Johnson crash brought out a red flag and set up the two-lap dash for the Borg-Warner Trophy. Kanaan came out of the restart in third but was unable to pose much of a challenge to a flying Ericsson over that stretch.’
“If I had actually fought with Pato for a lap and a half (for second), Marcus was going to open up a big enough gap that I wouldn’t catch him,” Kanaan said. “I’m not going to say I was happy, sad. It was another opportunity. Also is an opportunity to win, but also there is an opportunity to lose everything.
“You’re kind of divided, like I’m going to go for it, but also you want to finish in the top three, you were there all day, blah, blah, blah. You know what, there’s a chance to win. I’m going to do my best. If not, I’m going to try to protect where I’m at.”
Kanaan said that he heard the fans during the red-flag stoppage. No pressure there.
“I just sat there and actually kept hearing the crowd cheering for me the entire time. I was like, Oh, man, this is going to be so embarrassing if I don’t do it,” he said. “We’re all sitting there, and you’re still focused. It’s not over, so you’re still like, I still got to do this. It was two laps to go so you had to keep your focus up.”
If Sunday’s race was, in fact, Kanaan’s 21st and final 500, the driver said he left it all on the track.
“Yeah, I mean, of course I told them, Guys, I tried, I’m sorry, I did my best, thank you very much for everything,” he said. “A little bit of a flashback thinking maybe that was the last time I turned some laps around this place, as well.”
Keyword: Tony Kanaan Nearly Pulls Off One for the Ages at 106th Indianapolis 500