Tony Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, has revealed that this year’s Indy 500 will be his final attempt at the race.
The announcement effectively marks his retirement from IndyCar after a career stretching back to 1998, as the Indy 500 is the only series round the 48-year-old has contested since 2021.
Kanaan – who has switched from Chip Ganassi Racing to Arrow McLaren for his 500 bid this year – made the emotional announcement on his social media ahead of a 2pm ET press conference where he confirmed his sponsor and car number – 66 – for this year’s race.
🇧🇷Tem sido uma jornada maravilhosa, mas ainda não acabou. Espero vcs para a última em Maio.
•
🇺🇸 Let’s do this one last time. See you all in May.@ArrowMcLaren @IndyCar pic.twitter.com/lC1iY4GhT0— Tony Kanaan (@TonyKanaan) February 15, 2023
Kanaan won the Indy Lights title in 1997 before graduating to the what was then the CART Championship Series in 1998 with his Lights team Tasman.
After switching to Forsythe Racing’s new second team when Tasman closed, he took his first win at Michigan in 1999 in one of IndyCar’s closest ever finishes to that point.
Three mostly-disappointing years with Mo Nunn’s new team followed before what is now Andretti Autosport picked Kanaan as part of the line-up for its move into the IRL IndyCar Series in 2003 under the Andretti-Green Racing banner.
Kanaan became champion the following season, when the calendar was still all-oval.
He was a race-winner every season from 2003-10, runner-up to team-mate Dan Wheldon in the 2005 championship and then third in both 2007 and 2008.
Having never won the Indy 500 while at Andretti, Kanaan actually did after moving to KV Racing Technology. In perhaps his most famous and emotional success, he took the lead of the 2013 race late on and then benefited when it finished under yellow.
Kanaan had announced a ‘Victory Lap Tour’ in 2020 driving for AJ Foyt Racing, and intended to retire at the end of that year, but the COVID pandemic meant Kanaan lamented the lack of fans in the stands at those 2020 races.
He instead returned to race the ovals for Ganassi in 2021 and then just the Indy 500 in 2022, where he finished third.
After this year’s event, Kanaan will have made 22 starts at the 500, which will put him sixth all time. Up until now his average start is 8.52 and his average finish is 12.38.
So far he has 388 IndyCar (including CART) starts, 17 wins and 16 pole positions.
The number 66 Kanaan will use this year was last employed by Fernando Alonso in 2019 and it’s a number significant for a multitude of reasons including Bruce McLaren’s Le Mans success in 1966. It wasn’t a secret he would use the number as it was on his overalls in the pre-season Thermal test.
He was asked at that test – in the wake of Tom Brady retiring from American football – about his thoughts on if he wanted to make the call on his retirement, or just keep racing until he didn’t have a ride anymore.
“I always said, you want to retire, you don’t want somebody to retire you,” he said, poignantly.
“But after 25 years in the series I don’t think I could be upset if I don’t find a ride if I want to race next year. It’s been a great ride.
“Honestly, it’s the hardest…You see it in every sport. Not many times top guys retiring came back, because you don’t know how to let it go.
“Then you have examples like me and Helio [Castroneves] who are 48 and [Scott] Dixon who’s in his 40s and still, I want to come back, I know I can do this.
“But I was at peace with myself three years ago when I made that decision [to retire then], so now I’m just riding it because, hey, I’m a race car driver. If you give me a race car to drive, I’m jumping in.
“But no, I won’t be sad if this will be my last one.”
Expanding on the decision after the announcement of his retirement, he added: “I’m at peace in my decision.
It’s been one hell of a ride TM! We’ve been through some tough times together but we’ve also had fun along the way.
What a way to retire, still competitive and with a big chance of winning the Indy 500 (again!!)
Thanks for being my wing man, it was my pleasure to be yours. Xx pic.twitter.com/ujlff53Fcj— Dario Franchitti (@dariofranchitti) February 15, 2023
“I have a great team behind me. I think I had a great career. I have a really good shot of winning this thing. If I win, might be sitting here again next year. You never know [smiling].”
After his victory lap tour in 2020, Kanaan actually increased his racing commitments and drove in the Brazilian Stock Car Championship, the Superstar stock car series and increased his simracing outings, even helping young racers back in his native Brazil.
In his press conference Kanaan referenced his joy at ending the journey with McLaren, a team synonymous with Kanaan’s hero Ayrton Senna who helped launch Kanaan’s career back in 1993.
Kanaan’s key moments
To mark such a momentous announcement, The Race has picked out some of Kanaan’s key IndyCar career highlights below. Let us know your favourite in the comments and on social media.
The first win
Max Papis was dominating CART’s 500-mile Michigan race in 1999 for Team Rahal, but faulty telemetry meant he ran out of fuel.
That left Kanaan – who had run longer and jumped into second after a shorter pitstop late on – to hold off that year’s eventual champion Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.032s.
Kanaan climbed out of his car and said ‘Mom, I didn’t crash today’ after he claimed his parent had been giving him a hard time for a recent run of accidents. It’s not tough to see why Kanaan is a hilarious fan favourite.
The 500 victory
After 11 attempts to win the Indy 500, Kanaan had become the underdog’s favourite and a person many fans wanted to see be victorious at IndyCar’s biggest race at last.
Driving for KV Racing Technology, Kanaan had a relatively low-key month of May which culminated in qualifying 12th, below average for him.
Come race day, Kanaan put that right by immediately marking himself out as a contender. In the closing stages he took the lead from Ryan Hunter-Reay but a succession of cautions appeared to be his enemy, until Dario Franchitti crashed with three laps to go ending the race under caution.
It’s safe to say Kanaan was and is one of the happiest and most emotional winners the race has seen in its recent history.
The first title
In 2004, Kanaan found himself with a good opportunity for the title in the Andretti Green team, which was one of the only big teams with the Honda engine that ended up dominant (Penske and Ganassi had Toyotas at the time).
It was also the last year of an oval-only schedule, which also seemed to suit Kanaan, and he won three races but perhaps more importantly didn’t finish outside of the top eight all year in one of the most consistent seasons recorded up to that time as he finished every lap of the campaign.
He finished 85 points clear of team-mate Wheldon, who had three finishes outside of the top 10 that hurt his year.
Just to prove he isn’t all about the ovals, Kanaan would win the IRL’s first ever road course event held at Sonoma in the second half of 2005, too.
The last win?
Let’s be clear, Kanaan finished third in last year’s Indy 500 and he could win this year’s event with McLaren to sign off his career in the perfect fairytale way.
It would be fitting, because Kanaan has struggled to replicate some of his early successes recently, and nowhere is that more obvious that in terms of when his last win was: 2014.
After his 2013 Indy 500 win Kanaan joined Scott Dixon at Ganassi but it was a tricky year by the team’s standards given it was out of title contention and it wasn’t until the last race of the year Kanaan was able to win.
A race-long dice with multiple rivals was helped by the legendary Ganassi pit crew as Kanaan and Dixon jumped to the lead on the last stop – ahead of Helio Castroneves who was battling Will Power for the title – and wouldn’t be beaten.
It earned Kanaan the honour of having his picture on the factory wall for winning a race, and bragging rights for the next seven months comprising the off-season which Chip Ganassi himself had promised.
