Kanaan Taking In Every Moment Ahead Of Final Indy 500
Photo by Chris Owens, Penske Entertainment
For Tony Kanaan, his final Indianapolis 500 is something to be celebrated, not viewed with sadness.
Oh, it’ll be emotional and the there will be tears, a lot of the them, Sunday, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Not just from his family, friends and legion of fans, but from Kanaan himself.
“It’s going to be a mess. It will stop when I put my helmet on but up until then, I’m going to be a wreck, for sure. From the green room to the driver intros… It’s one of the times that I’ve enjoyed the most in the past.
“I just know… your nerves are up there. Every single driver that is in that green room, we’re ready to go. We’ve done all this, and the emotions are high. Then you’re going to add that this is the last one and everybody is trying to make it feel good.
“I’m going to have to drink a couple o extra bottles of water. That’s how much crying I’m going to do.”
Photo by Chris Owens, Penske Entertainment
As he approaches his 22nd and final 500, everything Kanaan does this week at the Speedway marks the last time he’ll do something - the last time he’ll do Carb Day, the last time he’ll go through driver intros on race day, etcetera. Instead of finding that distracting, Kanaan is embracing every moment leading up to the race.
“I actually enjoy it because it's the last time. If I waste my time being sad or overthinking, I'm not going to enjoy the moment. It's just enjoying the moment, and when that's over, I'm like, hmm, I'll be sad later, let's go to the next moment to enjoy.
“I really think it will hit really hard Monday night after I leave the JW Marriott banquet. Then it will be like, all right, I've got to get ready for my new life.”
If there’s one emotion that the 2013 Indy winner has been feeling this month, it is one of gratitude.
“Trying to put the best show for me, for my kids that are watching, for my fans.
“Obviously only person is going to be happy on Sunday; that's a fact. But I can say this year, two people will be happy on Sunday, and that will be me.
“No matter where I finish, I am going to celebrate with my fans, with 70 of my friends that are flying from Brazil just for this. People that couldn't even afford to be here have been saving money for ages to be here, with my team, and I’m just going to embrace it and enjoy the moment.
“The result is going to be the icing on top of the cake, but that's not what I'm looking for only. Yeah, we're going to cry, we're going to laugh, we're going to hug. And we're going to go on.”
Photo by Matt Fraser, Penske Entertainment
2020 was supposed to be Kanaan’s final 500, but the pandemic changed all that.
“I decided it was the final time three years ago. And we came back here and there was nobody in the stands. I’m like, ‘I can’t do that.’
“So we worked really hard and Jimmie (Johnson) and I got together and Jimmie is like, ‘I cannot do only one year. Can we do two?’ I said, ‘Jimmie, we are going to do one year, we’re going to share a car, you’re going to come watch the Indy 500 and the next year you’re going to kick me out of the car.’ Sure enough… he didn’t kick me out of the car but we raced together. Chip (Ganassi) made an extra car and I was fine.
“Last year, I didn’t mention anything. I finished the race and I was convinced it was my last one. I was done. I was not going to announce because I’m tired of Dario (Franchitti), (Scott) Dixon and all of them making fun of me saying, ‘Hey, do you think you’re Tom Brady?’
“And then Zak (Brown, McLaren Racing CEO) called. Racing is about performance. A team like this, with the history that they have, they finished second and fourth (in 2022)… I know I still have it. I’m not giving up because I don’t think I have it. I just proved it again. I was like, ‘OK, I’m not going to say no.’
“But this will be the last time. Honestly when I announced, I couldn’t celebrate with anyone. What I think will be fun for me, fun for my kids, fun for my family, I have 70 friends coming from Brazil just to watch this.”
“What I think will be fun for me, fun for my kids, fun for my family, I have 70 friends coming from Brazil just to watch this.””
While the 48-year-old Kanaan says this is definitely his last run at Indy, he admits he’s been urged to reconsider.
“Everybody including my wife. But it was good enough that we announced Kyle Larson on the car next year. Unless Mr. (Rick) Hendrick tells him he can’t and I need to sub. Then it won’t be my fault!”
As race day approaches, Kanaan claims he’s had no second thoughts about his decision.
“No. My point is if I’m going to be back here, I wanted to be back here in a competitive car. No disrespect to a bunch of the teams, but some of the teams are not.
“To be back and just to be a number and suffer through it and go away like that, I didn’t want to.
“Chip gave me an opportunity. Zak came. If Roger (Penske) called next year, I don’t know what I’d do! But it’s not going to happen. I’ve been around long enough that I know the opportunities are coming less and less.”
Photo by Chris Owens, Penske Entertainment
As he looks back on his career, Kanaan says he wouldn’t change a thing, except…
“I should have learned English before I came to America, because it was really hard. So I should have paid more attention at my English classes that I didn't care when I was young. That is for sure.
“I think everything that I went through was valid. It wasn't fun at times, but looking back, even the mistakes were a learning curve, as much as I hate them, and choices that I made felt right and then ended up being wrong, but because of that bad choice, led to a good choice later on. Then all of a sudden you look back and you go, I wouldn't change anything.
“What I would tell my young self is just trust your gut and do whatever is best for you. It's really easy when you're young and you don't have a lot of support, and without my dad being around you don't have a lot of people you can ask an opinion that is going to give you an honest one.
“A lot of people would approach you with, well, let me manage you, and they'd be thinking, well, how can I make money out of it, and those decisions sometimes are not the right ones. It's just because people were thinking financially what would be beneficial to them.
“I was fortunate enough -- I was lost at times. I made my own decisions a lot of the times, but even when I had somebody helping -- nowadays it's really easy. Everybody has an opinion on it. We put something on social media, we'll get a thousand replies with a thousand bloody answers of what you should be doing.
“But at the end of the day, the people around me, I always said, you're not going to make a decision for me. Even if you think it's wrong, I respect your decision, but I'll do it my way. That's pretty much -- I still do this today.
Photo by Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment
“When you're younger, you make a decision, whatever. Like it's right or wrong; we'll see what happens. You have no responsibility. You're single. What's the worst that can happen? I'm going to live on somebody's couch? Now you have four mouths to feed, a wife, a house, dogs, and it's a lot of responsibility.
“But yeah, at times. To make the decision to come here from Italy with a contract -- I had a contract almost signed with Audi for a lot of money, for a 20-year-old that was making half a million dollars a year, which the year before I made $12,000. It was a thousand dollars a month.
“To say no thanks and come here without speaking the language, without knowing if I was really going to get the ride, you can only do that if you're 20 years old. I wouldn't have done that today.
“It was always a doubt, wondering am I doing the right thing.”As he ends his Indy career, doing so with Arrow McLaren has extra meaning for Kanaan.
“Well, for me, the history with McLaren is huge. If you go back when I was a little kid, (Ayrton) Senna won three world championships for McLaren. I don't think I can express how big these two names are in Brazil. I cannot express how excited people were when I said, I'm actually -- if you think about this, how huge Senna was there, I'm the only Brazilian since he passed that has been -- that's racing for McLaren. So it is a big deal. It is a big deal to me.
“It's my childhood. It's the cars that I wanted to drive. It's Senna, my mentor, a guy that helped me before he passed, big time.
“ I keep telling my wife and my kids that I don’t know what I did to deserve so much and so good, but I must have done something right because somebody is watching, saying here, take your opportunity”
“I don't know. I mean, I keep telling my wife and my kids that I don't know what I did to deserve so much and so good, but I must have done something right because somebody is watching, saying here, take your opportunity.
“It's a great organization. Zak, we were teammates in '93, so that's not a new boss to me. He's a friend. He's a visionary. The way he runs his organization, it's unbelievable.
“This team, the atmosphere, since day one, it was just -- we just clicked. That's not something that I'm saying just because I'm here. I mean, I've been in an environment that it wasn't right, and I decided to leave, even being one of the best teams out there. But it wasn't -- we didn't click, and that's okay. It happens.
“So I feel right at home. I feel proud to wear papaya the whole time. Again, it's so many memories. It's an honor to retire here.
“I told Zak, you have no idea what you've done for me, for my personal, and I thank him a lot. Yeah.”
As far as his approach to his final 500, Kanaan promises to leave it all out there.
“Oh, it's all or nothing. At the end of the day, if something bad happens, Zak cannot fire me because I'm done anyways.
“No, I wouldn't approach it any different. This is a race that we all want to win. I'm going to leave it all out there, and if that's good enough to win, fine. If it's not, actually probably for the first time, I won't be sad, because I won't be looking, well, I've got to do it next year. I will be trying to enjoy it with all my friends and family and fans.”
I’m not crying. You’re crying.