Tony Kanaan Earns Lifetime Achievement Award Through 97th INDY 500 Win

For a decade, Kanaan was IndyCar’s reigning Best-Never, as in “best never to have won the Indy 500.” Sure, he’d won the championship in 2004, but make no mistake: in IndyCar, it’s all about the race that gives the series its very name. More than the Daytona 500 to NASCAR drivers, more than The Masters to golfers, more than Wimbledon to tennis players: This is the race that defines drivers; any second-place challenger isn’t even on the same lap. Caption Credit: Jay Busbee | Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)

Tony Kanaan Earns Lifetime Achievement Award Through 97th INDY 500 Win

It is understood that we humans are saps for happy endings – and for those who had invested their emotions in the 97th Indianapolis 500 race over the weekend, the payoff was anything but anticlimactic, even with the race ending under a full course YELLOW Flag caution.

Most of the easy money was on any one of five Andretti Autosport drivers taking the Borg-Warner Trophy inscription/sculpture prize and the lifetime of notoriety that comes with being “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” winner. In the final tally, Andretti Autosport had Columbian rookie Carlos Munoz riding P2 (voted Indy 500 Rookie of the Year), 2012 IZOD IndyCar Sreies Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay – P3, and the current 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series championship points leader Marco Andretti rolling along under the YELLOW Flag at P4.

The easy money did not win but the emotional money paid off big time … if the emotional money were on a deserving previous non-winner of the event, driving for a team that had never won either the INDY 500 or a series championship – 38 year old Brazilian Tony “TK” Kanaan.

TK even had an additional emotional story about luck that presented itself just days before the race.

The Handford Device was created as a way to slow the cars down and try and improve overtaking. The strip or plate was placed on the tailing edge of the rear wing and aided in reducing downforce, increasing drag, and generating a larger wake for the drivers of cars behind to use for a slipstream. Image Credit: f1technical.net

This excerpted and edited from NBC Sports -

Kanaan: Oval racing about “playing the game” given power levels
Tony DiZinno May 27, 2013, 2:30 PM EDT

A veteran of open-wheel’s top level since 1998, Indianapolis 500 champion Tony Kanaan is well-versed on the various “styles” of racing that have occurred in ovals in either CART, IRL or IndyCar iterations.

The second year of IndyCar’s new Dallara DW12 chassis at Indianapolis once again featured a plethora of passing thanks to the “slingshot” effect created by a tow. The cars punch such a big hole in the air that drivers catch up to each other fairly easily. Passing was as prevalent on Sunday as crushed beer cans in Indy’s new “Snake pit,” Turn 3.

But for Kanaan, who raced in the CART-era “Hanford device” period, the racing now isn’t as random or affected by the aero slingshots as it was then. The device, created by aerodynamicist Mark Hanford, was used in CART from 1998 through 2002 on high-speed ovals at Michigan and California Speedways.

“I’ve driven all types of IndyCars, I would say,” Kanaan said Monday at IMS. “I drove the Champ Cars with the thousand horsepower, a lot of downforce.  Then we went to the Hanford device, which was worse than this as far as drafting.  This car has a little bit less.”

The Dallara DW12’s powerplants have only 550 horsepower for ovals. What that has done is altered the racing, but away from the scary “pack racing” that plagued the IRL era, and made it about positioning compared to the CART days when cars could come from nearly a second back to pass [at will]  someone in one straightaway.

Kanaan would know, given his first major open-wheel win was a 500-mile CART race at Michigan in 1999, and he barely held off Juan Montoya after the Colombian hauled him in thanks to a monster tow.

“My most fun years were the years that we had the big horsepower cars and you just had to go flat out; it was pure racing speed,” Kanaan admitted. “You had the faster car, you’re going to take off and win this thing because you had a chance to lap the field.

“That’s not going to happen nowadays. Now you play the game we played yesterday.  You feel it out, what kind of car you have during the race, and you position yourself to win.”

Greater horsepower is a near universal desire of the field of drivers, but for now, Kanaan and others are playing with the resources at their disposal.

“So I would rather have more horsepower and do that.  But nowadays with the cost, it’s quite impossible for that to happen.”
[Reference Here]

TK drove the Hydroxycut KV Racing Technology-SH Racing (KVRT) prepared Chevrolet-powered second-year Dallara DW12 co-owned by Jimmy Vasser, Kevin Kalkhoven and Imran Safiulla.

KV Racing Technology team leader/co-owner Jimmy Vasser knows what it is to be a race car driver w/o INDY 500 recognition. He now has it as a team owner and joins a very exclusive group of drivers who turned to being a team owner to have this kind of success. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)

“I never won this race as a driver and couldn’t seem to do so, so I had to hire a driver to do it,” said on-track team owner Jimmy Vasser in a post race interview. “Tony is the consummate professional and he’s been a long time coming here. Starting a year ago, we decided to focus on Indy by taking a chassis and putting it aside. A lot of credit goes to the boys, who have worked very hard over the winter. Tony was right, ‘the stars started lining up for us,’ and we didn’t really get a race set-up until last Sunday [one week before the race] with two hours to go and within 45 minutes, we hit on it. We knew we had the right guy and the right set-up for the race.”

While the race ended under a full course YELLOW Flag caution, everyone invested in the event were treated to a highly competitive, record-setting run for the first 197 laps.

Tony Kanaan celebrates with winners milk in front of team owner Jimmy Vasser (clinched-fists, arms raised) after winning the Indianapolis 500. The American Dairy Association released a milk preference poll for all 33 drivers in this year’s race. Sixteen of them are opting for 2 percent, eight are going for whole, four of them chose skim milk, and five couldn’t care less … so long as they get to drink it. TK signed up for a quart of 2 percent! Image Credit: IndyCar.com

Some numbers of note following the 97th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, including the top three positions at 20-lap intervals (ht: IndyCar.com):

Lap 20 — Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti (-.0077 of a second), Ed Carpenter (-.3487)
Lap 40 — Ed Carpenter (under caution), Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay
Lap 60 — Ryan Hunter-Reay (under caution), Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter
Lap 80 — Will Power, Tony Kanaan (-.3984), Ryan Hunter-Reay (-.6241)
Lap 100 — AJ Allmendinger, Tony Kanaan (-.0473), Ryan Hunter-Reay (-.4544)
Lap 120 — Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti (-.1399), Ryan Hunter-Reay (-.3720)
Lap 140 — AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Hunter-Reay (-.1390), Marco Andretti (-.3408)
Lap 160 — Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti (-.1167), AJ Allmendinger (-.4829)
Lap 180 — Carlos Munoz, Ryan Hunter-Reay (-.2866), Helio Castroneves (-.9251)
Lap 200 –Tony Kanaan (under caution), Carlos Munoz, Ryan Hunter-Reay

68 — Race-record lead changes, breaking 34 in 2012.

14 — Race-record different lap leaders — a third of the field — breaking 12 in 1993.

27 — Race-record cars running at the finish, breaking 26 in 1911.

133 — Consecutive green flag laps (from Lap 61 through Lap 193), the longest green flag period in Indianapolis 500 history since caution flag laps were recorded beginning in 1976.

21 — Caution flag laps, the fewest in an Indianapolis 500 that went the full distance since caution flag laps were recorded beginning in 1976. The 1976 race also had just 21 caution-flag laps, but that race ended after 102 laps because if rain.

187.433 — Average speed in miles per hour, a race record. Arie Luyendyk held the record of 185.981 mph since 1990. It was only the fourth time the race record has been broken.

13 — Positions gained by Simon Pagenaud, who finished P8 from P21, the most in the field.

6 — Drivers who led their first laps in the Indianapolis 500.

9 — Indy 500s led by Tony Kanaan in his 12 starts.

62 — Temperature in Fahrenheit at the green flag, tying the 1930 race for the third-coldest in the race’s history.

226.940 — Fastest overall lap in miles per hour by Justin Wilson (the highest placing Honda-powered DW12 at P5) on Lap 185.

223.651 — Fastest lap in miles per hour by a race leader, Carlos Munoz, on Lap 184.

168 — 2013 series championship points for Marco Andretti after five races. Takuma Sato is 11 points behind.

226.176 — Field qualifying average in miles per hour. It’s the fourth-fastest field in Indianapolis 500 history, exceeded only in 1995, 1996 and 2002. The 2002 field averaged 228.648 mph, the fastest in history.

228.762 — Four-lap average speed by pole winner Ed Carpenter, the fastest since 2006 by Sam Hornish Jr.

Favorite post race Tweet:

E.M.H @elmondohummus
Yes This! No gimmicks in Indycar. RT @TonyJWriter: Oh, and hey, screw green-white-checker finishes. #Indy500orBust #IndyCar #dw12

Longtime American open-wheel writer, SpeedTV’s Marshall Pruett Predicted: He’s come close before and has, in my estimation, another legitimate shot at winning this year. The most popular driver in the field without his likeness on the BorgWarner trophy will likely put on more displays of bravery and miraculous passes—but can his team get his No. 11 car just right for the sprint to the finish? That’s the only thing I see holding TK back from Victory Lane.

Well, they did, Marshall!

Results – 200 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine        Time/Gap

1.  Tony Kanaan          KVRT/Chevy
2.  Carlos Munoz         Andretti/Chevy     + 0.1159
3.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy     + 0.2480
4.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy     + 0.3634
5.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda        + 0.8138

6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy       + 3.0086
7.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske/Chevy       + 4.0107
8.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda      + 4.2609
9.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda      + 5.6864
10.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy    + 6.8425

11.  Oriol Servia         Panther DRR/Chevy  + 7.8633
12.  Ryan Briscoe         Ganassi/Honda      + 8.9216
13.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda         + 10.2602
14.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda      + 11.3858

15.  Ana Beatriz          Coyne/Honda        + 12.2657

16.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda      + 15.3045
17.  Simona De Silvestro  KVRT/Chevy           + 15.7201
18.  EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy     + 17.8056
19.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy       + 22.5403

20.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda        + 1 lap

21.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy     + 1 lap
22.  Conor Daly           Foyt/Honda         + 2 laps
23.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda      + 3 laps*
24.  Alex Tagliani        Herta/Honda        + 4 laps
25.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda        + 7 laps*

26.  Katherine Legge      Schmidt/Honda      + 7 laps
27.  Townsend Bell        Panther/Chevy      + 8 laps
28.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda       + 9 laps

* Not running at finish

Retirements

Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy       178 laps
Pippa Mann           Coyne/Honda        46 laps
Buddy Lazier         Lazier/Chevy       44 laps
Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy       34 laps
JR Hildebrand        Panther/Chevy      3 laps
(ht: autosport.com)

As Tony was overheard to say during the ceremony at race’s end, “This is it … man, I made it. Finally they’re going to put my ugly face on this [Borg-Warner] trophy.” This inscription and facial sculpture will become a well earned award for a lifetime of achievements.

… notes from The EDJE

**Article first posted as "Tony Kanaan Earns Lifetime Achievement Award Through 97th INDY 500 Win" at Motorsports Unplugged**

Will The 97th INDY 500 Become An Andretti Autosport Shootout?

A joyous Michael Andretti as he basks in the glow of being the team owner of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay while fielding questions from the press just after the last race of the season at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2012)

Will The 97th INDY 500 Become An Andretti Autosport Shootout?

The month of May, 2013, at the famed two and a half mile rectangle/oval located at Speedway, Indiana has been dominated by cars prepared and driven by Andretti Autosport. During the week leading up to Pole Day, which took place last weekend, saw all five cars comfortably posting speed times in the top 10 with the consistency usually reserved by Penske Racing or Target Chip Ganassi (who, under their direct banner, have fielded five cars combined).

On Pole Day, Andretti Autosport cars made it to the “Fast Nine” shootout for the pole … the only other multiple car team to place all of its cars in the final cut was Penske Racing (P5. (2) AJ Allmendinger, Dallara-Chevy 02:37.8264 (228.099) | P6. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy 02:37.8342 (228.087) | P8. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy 02:38.0596 (227.762)) leaving Target Chip Ganassi Racing (TGR) locked out – TGR’s Dixon and Franchitti are P16 and P17 respectively (row six).

The Andretti Autosport DW12′s qualified at P2. (26) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Chevy 02:37.6581 (228.342) | P3. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy 02:37.7139 (228.261) | P4. (5) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevy 02:37.7907 (228.150) | P7. (1) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy 02:37.9614 (227.904) | P9. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy 02:38.5411 (227.070).

Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay just moments after he pits his #1 DHL sponsored Dallara-Chevy at the end of the race that rewarded him with enough points to secure the 2012 IICS driver championship. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2012)

If qualifying position and overall team performance were the solid gold predictors in the outcome of a race run, then one would have to give the inside track to ANY Andretti Autosport team car and driver.

When one adds the calculation of team performance to the winning of races, Andretti Autosport is also given the edge starting the last half of 2012 – when Ryan Hunter-Reay won Race #8 of a 15 race season at the Milwaukee Mile, Race #9 Iowa, and Race #14 through the streets of Baltimore and eventually seizing the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series (IICS) Driver Championship  – then continuing the performance during the first four races of the 2013 season with James Hinchcliffe winning Race #1 at St. Petersburg and #4 at Sao Paulo, not to forget the win by last year’s IICS champion Ryan Hunter-Reay in Race #2 at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama – the team is on a roll.

James Hinchcliffe prays in the cockpit of his Andretti Autosport Go Daddy sponsored Dallara-Chevy before taking to the track. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2012)

Lastly, through four races of the 2013 season, the consistency of performance can not be ignored. The driver championship standings with over 20% of the season being run has Andretti Autosport season regular drivers Marco Andretti standing at  P2, James Hinchcliffe at P4, Ryan Hunter-Reay at P6, and EJ Viso at P11. And, again, the pinch-hitter for the INDY 500, Carlos Munoz sits as the top qualifying driver for the team at P2 – WOW!

A shootout in the INDY 500 by Andretti Autosport drivers is a very real possibility because the team, and the way the second season DW12 cars have been prepared, would allow this to happen.

Andretti Autosport drivers Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe take to the ‘Brickyard’ for set-ups. Marco sets a speed of 225 on the first day of practice laps leading all cars that ran on the first day of May practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Image Credit: IZOD IndyCar Series

This excerpted and edited from SB Nation -

2013 Indianapolis 500: Power ranking the field of 33
By MattWeaver on May 21 2013, 10:00p 

Instead of compiling a traditional power rankings list like we normally do on Tuesday afternoons at SB Nation IndyCar, this week’s post will rank the top-10 drivers most likely to win the Indianapolis 500-mile Race.

Drivers can typically be lumped into three groups entering the month of May:

1.) The top-10 drivers that have the easiest path towards winning the Borg-Warner Trophy.

2.) The group of 10 that will need some help or a little bit of luck.

3.) The final 13 that are best described as a long shot.

Conceivably any of the 33 drivers have a shot after 500-miles, as fuel strategy has generated some surprise winners over the last century. That’s one of the many reasons the Greatest Spectacle in Racing is still the greatest race in the world – it’s still the 500-mile sweepstakes.

And yet, there is still a clear hierarchy led by traditional powers Andretti Autosport, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. Our top-10 picks to win the 2013 Indianapolis 500 can be found below, with an explanation for each of the top contenders. For reference’s sake, we’ve also included a complete ranking to the last driver.

1. Marco Andretti
The entire month of May seemingly has been dedicated to Andretti Autosport, the Andretti Curse and Marco Andretti’s career resurgence. While just a little off the pole speed on Saturday, the number 25 team appears fastest in traffic, picking up a toe [TOW] and several other deciding factors in traffic.
—-
He’s also number 1 on the power rankings list because he’s shown the most consistent speed at Indianapolis since teams unloaded the DW12 oval model last May, leading the most laps of the 2012 race and dominating the practice sessions leading up to the 2013 race.

2. Ed Carpenter
One of the biggest misconceptions about the buildup to this year’s Indianapolis 500 is that Ed Carpenter is some sort of heartwarming underdog victory after capturing the pole on Saturday afternoon. Sure, Ed Carpenter Racing doesn’t have the same budget as Penske or Ganassi, but he is the most prolific oval racer of the post-split era.

3. Carlos Muñoz
With reservation, a 21-year-old rookie makes the podium in the most-likely to win the Indianapolis 500 power rankings post.
—-
Only Marco Andretti has shown quicker pace in practice, and Muñoz has looked confident running in a pack with his Andretti Autosport teammates. He’s looking to do what JR Hildebrand couldn’t do in 2011, and that is winning this race in just his very first attempt — so don’t be surprised if it actually happens.

4. Hélio Castroneves
If youthful disregard could win on Sunday for Muñoz, experience and patience will do it for Hélio Castroneves. There is more than one way to win this race, and it will be interesting to see how Castroneves approaches another attempt to win his fourth Borg-Warner.

5. Dario Franchitti
Repeat everything that was said about Hélio Castroneves in regards to Dario Franchitti. The only thing placing Castroneves over Franchitti is his Chevy turbocharger which appears much-stronger at Indianapolis. Dario is also looking for his fourth win at the Speedway.

6. Will Power
Based on his championship finishes over the past three seasons, Will Power has inherited the title of Team Penske’s number 1 driver. With that title comes a lot of responsibility at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but not a lot of success thus far.
—-
Will Power can absolutely win this race. And in a season where he has somehow gone winless through four-consecutive road and street course events, wouldn’t a victory in the Indianapolis 500 just make sense?

7. James Hinchcliffe
The Go Daddy Andretti driver has been sneaky competitive at Indianapolis, qualifying 13th for Newman/Haas in 2011 and finishing sixth in last year’s race. Brimming with the confidence off two wins to start the 2013 season and the powerful Andretti Autosport backing his entry in 2013, Hinchcliffe could finally and completely break out of her shadow with a win in the Indianapolis 500.

8. EJ Viso
Andretti Autosport has seemingly concentrated the raw potential of EJ Viso, and that could again show itself with a surprise victory in the Indianapolis 500.

9. AJ Allmendinger
Casual observers were quick to point out that AJ Allmendinger’s lack of results in his first two races back in Indy car was a sign of his inability to drive these cars after six seasons or the result of his mixed commitments to both IndyCar and NASCAR.
—-
Like any Penske car, the No. 2 has speed the driver has shown the ability to wield it for brief practice or qualifying spurts, but can he do it for 500 miles? That’s the only question separating AJ Allmendinger from the Borg-Warner trophy.

10. Scott Dixon
In a repeat of last season, Honda and Target Chip Ganassi Racing look to be just off the pace set by their Chevrolet rivals. But like last season, Honda and Ganassi will rise to the occasion and will be a constant threat for the lead in the late stages of the race.

The Borg-Warner Trophy – this image never gets old. Image Credit: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Lost in the shuffle between the legendary Dario Franchitti/Takuma Sato duel last year was that Scott Dixon was leading the Indianapolis 500 up until three laps to go. That isn’t likely to change on Sunday.

11. Ryan Hunter-Reay
12. Tony Kanaan
13. Takuma Sato
14. JR Hildebrand
15. Ryan Briscoe

16. Alex Tagliani
17. Charlie Kimball
18. Graham Rahal
19. Justin Wilson
20. Oriol Servia

21. Townsend Bell
22. Simon Pagenaud
23. Simona de Silvestro
24. Josef Newgarden
25. Sebastien Bourdais

26. James Jakes
27. Sebastian Saavedra
28. Conor Daly
29. Tristan Vautier
30. Pippa Mann

31. Buddy Lazier
32. Ana Beatriz
33. Katherine Legge
(Reference Here)

Predictions are a funny thing because when the race is run, the story always takes on an edge that can never be calculated for. This is why we race, and watch American open wheel races – F1 has nothing like this.

Broadcast Information:

The Memorial Day weekend tradition returns with the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 26, beginning at 12pm ET from famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

ABC airs the race for the 49th straight year, beginning with a one-hour preview show Sunday at 11am ET. The production will use 84 cameras, including three on-board cameras each on 12 of the 33 cars. Viewers can also choose a live streaming video feed from the on-board cameras on ESPN3. Marty Reid calls the race with analysts Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever. Lindsay Czarniak hosts, with Rick DeBruhl, Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch and Vince Welch reporting from pit row.

… notes from The EDJE


** Article originally posted as "Will The 97th INDY 500 Become An Andretti Autosport Shootout?" at Motorsports Unplugged**