Kanaan back on grid for Iowa doubleheader
In his 23rd season of American openwheel racing, remarkably there are a few things Tony Kanaan has never done in a race car. Friday night, he’ll get to check one more off his list.
While sitting in the cockpit waiting to begin the second race of his swan song tour titled “TK’s Last Lap,” officials at Iowa Speedway asked Kanaan to serve as the grand marshal for Friday’s race, the first in a weekend doubleheader. He’ll give the command while sitting on the grid in the cockpit of his newly revealed No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing entry that will run a special Bryant Heating and Cooling livery to celebrate the company’s 13 years of support with the driver.
It’s another weekend that’s part celebration, part competition for the series’ ironman, who made 318 consecutive starts in his IndyCar career, his last coming in the season opener June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway. That day brought on a unique wave of emotions Kanaan knows will return even more deeply Friday and Saturday, as he’ll finally be able to run in front of some of the fans who helped make him a household name for the last two decades.
“This is all going to be hard for me. I know It’s going to be very emotional,” Kanaan said Wednesday during a media Zoom call. “I’m going to have to hold my breath, because it’s really easy for me to get emotional. But I’m glad I get to (be grand marshal) from inside the car, because it means I get to go driving too.”
The absence of the ability to do just that the past two weekends led to anguish in the Kanaan household, as he did his best to distance himself from the
TV during qualifications for the GMR Grand Prix. He planned to spend the afternoon in the pool with his kids. Instead, he kept stepping away to check the results. Even for just over half-anhour, he couldn’t step away, as much as it killed him to watch.
“I was suffering,” he said. “That was tough for me.”
This past weekend, he all but forced himself to stay distracted, entering the iRacing Spa 24-hour endurance event on a six-man team that included Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello.
Now, itching to get back into the car, there are few places better-suited to mark Kanaan’s return.
In 13 starts at the track, he has landed on the podium five times and come away with one victory – all in a five-year stretch from 2010 to 2014 with three separate teams. That’s a place the A.J. Foyt Racing team has never finished since the series made Iowa Speedway an annual stop on the circuit. The team has finished inside the top 10 three times, including Kanaan’s 10th-place finish a year ago.
Though he’s only sat in the car once this year, Kanaan believes this weekend could show the improvement he’s seen across the team this offseason. After he and teammate Charlie Kimball hung around in the top 10 almost all race at Texas – ending in 10th for Kanaan and 11th for Kimball – and with Kimball’s 10th-place finish Sunday at Road America in Wisconsin, the driver of the No. 14 sees this jam-packed weekend as a place where the crew members on his car can develop their best possible momentum, outside the two weeks of Indianapolis 500 preparation.
It’s expected to be a rigorous weekend – likely the toughest one on the schedule this year – with green flag ambient temperatures around 90 degrees for a 7/8-mile track that has the drivers almost constantly turning left without power steering. Kanaan admits the last couple of weekends his competitors have had in the cockpit at IMS and Road America might give them a bit of an edge in recent experience, but there’s something to be said about the 22 seasons he has under his belt.
“I really want to enjoy being in the car, doing what I love to do, and this is one of the best places for me to do that,” he said. “I’m extremely, extremely hopeful we’ll be competitive there. I think we have a good thing going . ...
“I’ve found throughout my career that the physical fatigue, you can manage, but for me, the mental fatigue is really a lot tougher. You can’t really train for that, and I’m expecting to be drained, extremely drained after these two races. But I’m ready.”
Kanaan reiterated that his Last Lap tour isn’t a retirement celebration and wouldn’t rule out Indy 500-only years.
When asked about his approach to the marathon weekend, which will include a unique qualifying procedure where the drivers’ first lap Friday will set the grid for the first race, and the second lap for the second race, Kanaan was cagey, except for this.
“You need to be aggressive, and I think that’s why I clicked there right away,” he said. “I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a good weekend for us.”