Kanaan Claims Texas 500

[gaijin]

Kanaan Claims Texas 500
Written by: Jeff Olson
Fort Worth, Texas – 6/12/2004


Picture this and try not to smile: Tony Kanaan wearing a cowboy hat.

If you were in Victory Lane following the affable Brazilian’s win Saturday night in the Bombardier 500k at Texas Motor Speedway, that’s precisely the visual presented. Kanaan, the race winner and new IRL IndyCar Series leader, wearing a white Stetson and doing his best John Wayne imitation.

The scene, of course, was Kanaan prevailing over teammate Dario Franchitti to win a slam-bang 200-lap race. The key to victory, as any good cowboy knows, is staying out of trouble. Five cars were sent out of the sloppy race because of damage from accidents, and 11 different collisions occurred.

None of them involved Kanaan and Franchitti. In the end, Kanaan passed Franchitti as both drivers passed their Andretti Green Racing teammate Dan Wheldon on a restart with 14 laps remaining. Minutes later, Franchitti tried to work the outside as he closed to within one-tenth of a second of Kaanan in the final four laps, but eventually tucked behind and settled for second place.

As a result, Kanaan won for the second time this season, regained the series points lead from Wheldon, and extracted a tiny amount of retribution for finishing second at the Indianapolis 500 on May 30.

"I thought to myself, ‘Today, I am not going to lose,‘" Kanaan said. "’Even if I’m going to lose to a guy I really want to see win, I’m not going to lose.’"

Alex Barron, who started last in the 22-car race after his gearbox blew up during qualifying Thursday night, raced through the field to finish third. Sam Hornish Jr., nearly caught in one of the accidents, nursed a broken car to a fourth-place finish, while Adrian Fernandez, who thumped into Scott Dixon while leaving the pits late in the race, finished fifth.

But the guy in the white hat at the end was Kanaan, who started third and led 145 laps in the No. 11 Andretti Green Racing Honda-powered Dallara.

"We both knew what we had," Kanaan said of himself and Franchitti. "I was comfortable, but you never know. Anything can happen on the last laps. You can have a cough in the engine or anything, I raced him to the end, for sure. I knew exactly what he had."

Wheldon held the lead on a restart on the 186th lap, but Franchitti and Kanaan -- running second and third -- quickly ducked inside of their teammate and began battling among themselves. As he closed on Kanaan, Franchitti tried going around the outside, but eventually became his buddy’s wing man and helped the two cars pull away as the rest of the fading pack tried in vain to get around Barron.

"I almost got Tony on the outside, but I didn‘t have enough," Franchitti said. "I saw this gaggle of cars coming up behind us. When I got back to about where my front wheel was level with his rear, I just pulled back into line behind him. I thought, ‘The best way to do this is to go single file and see if I can catch him.’ I was sitting there with absolutely nothing for him. Unless he made a mistake and gave up the inside, I wasn’t getting by him."

Content to play defense, Barron held off advances by Hornish, Fernandez, Vitor Meira and Greg Ray. It was Barron’s best finish of 2004 and the first podium of the season for Chevrolet.

"We just kept plugging along and keeping after it," Barron said. "We were at the right place at the right time. The guys gave us three extremely good pit stops. That’s what gave us track position. It would have been hard to try to win this thing because of how fast those two guys were at the end."
The Andretti Green cars dominated most of the night (LAT photo).

The first IRL race at TMS since Kenny Brack’s crash last October race was clouded by harrowing incidents in spite of the league’s new, slower engine/chassis formula. The most costly was a wheel-touching incident that ended a strong run by Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice.

Rice, hired as Brack’s replacement but now a permanent fixture in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda/Panoz G Force, buzzed wheels with Darren Manning while the two cars were heading into the third turn on the 180th lap. Rice saved the car before it hit the wall, but the driveshaft had broken, ending his effort.

"I don‘t even know who it was out there," said Rice, who finished 15th. "Maybe I came down a little and he came up or something else. I had to save it. I need to see the video to know what happened, but I didn‘t hear that anyone was near me or beside me."

Rice had led twice in the race and stalked Kanaan and Franchitti in the lead pack for most of the event. His incident also cost Manning, who faded to an eighth-place finish, and Hornish, who bent rear suspension pieces on the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske while trying to avoid Rice’s slowing car but soldiered on for fourth place.

"The car ran almost as well after the accident," Hornish said. "I have to hand it to my crew. It was one of those races in which anything that could happen did happen. I’m happy with a fourth-place finish."

Other incidents included contact between Fernandez and Dixon on the final pit stop that launched Dixon’s No. 1 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota/G Force in the air and ended his race. The IRL’s defending champion finished 14th and is now sixth in points, 88 behind Kanaan.

"It cost us staying with the leaders and fighting for the lead," Fernandez said.

Mark Taylor, Ed Carpenter and A.J. Foyt IV also were sidelined by crashes during a race that featured a surprising number of close calls. The slowed speeds afforded by the new formula, along with the first race with the speedway’s new SAFER barrier, helped everyone depart in good health.

"When you crash 15 or 20mph slower, that helps a lot," Kanaan said. "We went the whole month of May (at the Indianapolis 500) without anybody getting hurt. Tonight, I saw some nasty crashes. Everybody walked out."

Including Kanaan, who mugged for cameras while wearing the cowboy hat and relished one of his contingency prizes, a pair of cowboy boots. "I tried on the boots this weekend," Kanaan said with a grin. "I've been practicing."


Bombardier 500k results (1.5mi oval):

1) Tony Kanaan, No. 11 7-Eleven/Andretti Green Racing Dallara/Honda, 200 laps
2) Dario Franchitti, No. 27 Arca-EX/Andretti Green Racing Dallara/Honda, 200, +0.2578sec
3) Alex Barron, No. 51 Red Bull Cheever Racing Dallara/Chevrolet, 200, +1.2543s
4) Sam Hornish Jr., No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske, Dallara/Toyota, 200, +1.3128s
5) Adrian Fernandez, No. 5 Quaker State/Tecate Fernandez Racing G-Force/Honda, 200, +1.3888s
6) Vitor Meira, No. 17 Centrix Financial/Rahal-Letterman G-Force/Honda, 200
7) Greg Ray, No. 13 Access Motorsports G-Force/Honda, 200
8) Darren Manning, No. 10 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing G-Force/Toyota, 200
9) Felipe Giaffone, No. 24 Team Purex/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Chevrolet, 200
10) Tora Takagi, No. 12 Pioneer/Mo Nunn Racing Dallara/Toyota, 200
11) Al Unser Jr., No. 20 Patrick Racing Dallara/Chevrolet, 198
12) Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske, Dallara/Toyota, 197, out of fuel
13) Dan Wheldon, No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam /Andretti Green Racing Dallara/Honda, 190, gearbox
14) Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing G-Force/Toyota, 182, suspension
15) Buddy Rice, No. 15 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer/Rahal-Letterman G-Force/Honda, 181, driveshaft
16) Kosuke Matsuura, No. 55 Panasonic/ARTA/S. Aguri Fernandez Racing G-Force/Honda, 141, electrical
17) Mark Taylor, No. 2 Menards/Panther Racing Dallara/Chevrolet, 125, accident
18) Scott Sharp, No. 8 Delphi Dallara/Toyota, 125, engine
19) Bryan Herta, No. 7 XM Satellite Radio/Andretti Green Racing Dallara/Honda, 113, clutch
20) Tomas Scheckter, No. 4 Pennzoil/Panther Racing Dallara/Chevrolet, 48, suspension
21) Ed Carpenter, No. 52 Red Bull Cheever Racing Dallara/Chevrolet, 46, accident
22) A.J. Foyt IV, No. 14 Conseco/A.J. Foyt Racing Dallara/Toyota, 38 accident