Tony Kanaan has announced that the 107th Indianapolis 500 in 2023 will be the final IndyCar race of his career. Less than a month after he declared he wouldn’t make a decision about his future until he completed the Indy 500 in May, the 48-year-old Brazilian will retire after his 390th IndyCar appearance. declared that
2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan, much loved by fans around the world, will retire at the pinnacle of American open-wheel racing with 17 victories. Tony Kanaan won the Formula European Boxer Championship in 1994 and won the Italian Formula 3 with a bang in 1995. Tony Kanaan, who drove for Tasman Motorsport, finished second in the Indy Lights in 1996 and won the title the following year. He led the team to two podiums at the end of the season before moving to Forsyth Racing in 1999. Kanaan only finished on the podium once this year, but it was when he pounced on Max Papis’ machine, which stalled in the final stages, and grabbed the win. Three more years with Mo Nunn Racing saw more podiums, but most importantly, he left CART/Champ Car in May for a one-off run at the Indy Racing League-sanctioned Indianapolis 500. That is. Tony Kanaan qualified 5th and led for 23 laps before colliding with a backmarker in the middle distance and crashing. In 2003, Tony Kanaan, who had joined Andretti Green Racing at the time, had a battle with Champ Car. Became one of the superstars of the Indy Racing League in the midst of the He also became a core part of the team owned by Michael Andretti/Kim Green, finishing fourth in his first season and winning the title the following year. Knowing his limits and knowing when and where to take risks, Tony Kanaan became the first driver to complete every lap in an IndyCar season, racking up three wins, six runners-up and two thirds. rice field. In his 16 races, he was outside the top five only once. Tony Kanaan never reached that height again, but in his six years at Andretti Green (later Andretti Autosport) he finished in the top three three times and never missed the top six. , with 10 more wins. Finally, he left the famous team and moved to KV Racing. Kanaan delivered the consistency the team desperately needed, finishing fifth in the 2011 championship. He was able to steer the team as IndyCar transitioned to a DW12 chassis and Chevrolet twin-turbo V6 in 2012. But the credit for his rethinking came the following year. After a ten-year run of strong Indy 500 and terrible misfortune, he finally won. He won a fierce race with 68 changes in the ranking and 14 top positions, and was surrounded by cheers. When his friend and former teammate Dario Franchitti was injured in his penultimate race of 2013, he joined Chip Ganassi Racing for four seasons. . Fontana in 2014 was his only win, but he has 11 other podium finishes. 2018 saw Kanaan suddenly move from four to two cars on the grid, but spent the last two seasons with AJ Foyt Racing before finishing on the podium at Gateway in 2019. have earned. In 2020, he became an exclusive Oval driver, sharing the No. 14 car with fellow champion Sébastien Bourdais, before being invited back by Ganassi in 2021 to play the same role. This time, NASCAR legend and IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson will run the oval in the No. 48 car that has ridden road and street courses. Johnson decided to run the entire race in 2022, but Ganassi offered Kanaan a one-off fifth car at the India 500. Tony Kanaan responded admirably, qualifying sixth, six laps. He took the podium for the 79th time in his illustrious career. He will join the three drivers of Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi at Arrow McLaren in May this year. Despite having dismal luck at the Indy 500 before winning, his Tony Kanaan has scored five finishes in his top nine in the event, making 21 appearances, including pole position in 2005. has recorded 11 starts from the front second row. IndyCar wasn’t the only thing Tony Kanaan was working on for the last 25 years. In the 1998 Daytona 24 Hours race, he rode Tom Groy’s Ford Mustang with Mike Bolkowski and Robbie Buhl, and made his debut in GT1 class 3rd. 2007 Sebring 12 Hours driving Andretti Green’s Acura ARX-01 with Brian Herta and Dario Franchitti to win the LMP2 class (2nd overall), Frank in 2008 Laguna Seca in AGR’s Acura ARX-01b – Driving for Montagny and class-winning Chip Ganassi Racing also gave Tony Kanaan the opportunity for a great sports car, and in 2015 he joined Scott Dixon, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray at the 24 Hours of Daytona. won over. And like Dixon, Kanaan proved his speed in the Ford GT program at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Tony Kanaan says his open-wheel career is over and he intends to pursue IMSA and WEC opportunities. He is scheduled to address the media this afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.