INDIANAPOLIS - Tony Kanaan had one more lap, one anticlimactic last lap under the yellow caution flag, to end years of frustration in the Indianapolis 500.
He flipped up his visor to wipe away tears as the crowd roared its approval, and then in Victory Lane gave his bride of two months a long kiss and poured the celebratory winner’s milk over his head.
Kanaan is Indy’s hard luck loser no more. After 12 attempts, he is its champion at last, fittingly with a dose of good luck for a change.
“I have to say, the last lap was the longest lap of my life,” Kanaan said.
It was one of Indy’s most popular victories.
The losers were pleased with the outcome, evidenced by a scene similar to rivals lining up to congratulate Dale Earnhardt when he finally won the Daytona 500 on his 20th try. Dario Franchitti, whose crash brought out the race-ending caution, stood grinning by his crumpled car, two thumbs up as Kanaan passed under yellow.
“When I saw who was leading, it cheered me up a little bit,” said Franchitti, last year’s winner. “He’s a very, very deserving winner.”
The fans thought so, too, standing on their feet, screaming “TK! TK! TK!” as he and team owner Jimmy Vasser went by during the traditional victory lap. It felt magical to Kanaan, like he had given the crowd at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a gift.
“It means a lot to me because so many people, I could feel that they wanted me to win, and it’s such a selfish thing to do because what are they getting from it?” Kanaan said. “I’m the one who gets the trophy. I believed that this win was more for people out there than for me.
“I wanted it all my life, but over the years I was kind of OK with the fact that I may never have the chance to win.”
His chance came at the end of a history-making race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Kanaan knew he had to pounce at the green flag for the final restart with three laps to go. He did, zipping inside leader Ryan Hunter-Reay to roar to the lead - where he wanted to be in case another caution came out.
“I knew I had to get the lead on the restart because it could be a yellow, which happened to me plenty of times here, and it did,” Kanaan said. “How funny is life? The yellow was my best friend.”
Kanaan had his fair share of chances to win at Indy, but came up short time and time again. He was leading when the rain came in 2007, only to lose to Franchitti when the race resumed.
In all, Kanaan went into Sunday’s race with 221 laps led at Indy - more than any non-winner except Michael Andretti and Rex Mays - but his second-place finish to Buddy Rice in 2004 was the closest he had come to victory. He had a pair of third place finishes, including last year, again to Franchitti.
“It’s wonderful for him,” said Mario Andretti, himself a victim of bad luck at Indy. “He’s raced here long enough that he deserves it, no question.”
The win for Kanaan and car owner Vasser was celebrated throughout the paddock. Alex Zanardi, who came from Italy to watch the race and gave Kanaan one of his 2012 London Paralympics medals as good luck, wept behind the pit wall as Kanaan took the checkered flag.
“I tell you I’m starting to think [the medal] really works,” said Zanardi, who lost his legs in a 2001 crash in Germany. “It’s a dream come true to see Tony win, to see Jimmy Vasser win, my dear friend. I’m so happy, I’m so happy.”
It was Vasser who brought Zanardi’s medal to Kanaan before the race, telling his driver that Zanardi wanted him to rub it for good luck.
“I actually cuddled with the thing,” Kanaan admitted.
Vasser, caught in the middle as a driver during the political fighting in open-wheel racing, only got the chance to run Indy eight times in his career and not during his prime. He had goose-bumps on the celebratory lap with Kanaan as the crowd chanted the driver’s name.
“I never won it as a driver. In fact, I couldn’t win it as a driver,” Vasser said, “so I had to hire the right guy to do it, get a baby Borg on my shelf,” referring to the winner’s Borg-Warner trophy.
It will be one adorned with Kanaan’s likeness, and the driver joked he could finally “put my big nose on that trophy.”
Fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves, like Franchitti shooting for a record-tying fourth Indy victory, was happy for his long-time friend.
“Finally he’s able to win this race. He’s so close so many times, but the good news is the good old boys are still able to run fast,” Castroneves said.
Carlos Munoz, a 21-yearold rookie making his first IndyCar start, finished second and Hunter-Reay was third.
“T.K. is such a fan favorite, absolutely, it’s great to see him win it. If anybody is going to win it in the field, he’s one of the few I’d like to see other than myself,” Hunter-Reay said. “We were leading on that last restart, I knew I was a sitting duck, and I wasn’t too bummed about it because I knew we had enough laps to get it going again and have a pass back. Maybe I would be third on the last lap, which is where I wanted to be.”
Only there was no racing on the last lap. Franchitti brought out the caution seconds after Kanaan passed Hunter-Reay for the last of 68 lead changes - exactly double last year’s record.
On the final lap, the leaders came to the finish line all bunched up around Kanaan, saluting the IndyCar stalwart who had longed to add the final missing piece to his resume. That was about as slow as anyone had driven all day. The average speed was 187.433 mph, another Indy record.
Indianapolis 500 results At Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Lap length: 2.5 miles(Starting position in parentheses) All cars Dallara chassis
(12) Tony Kanaan, Chevy, 200 laps.
(2) Carlos Munoz, Chevy, 200.
(7) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevy, 200.
(3) Marco Andretti, Chevy, 200.
(14) Justin Wilson, Honda, 200.
(8) Helio Castroneves, Chevy, 200.
(5) AJ Allmendinger, Chevy, 200.
(21) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 200.
(19) Charlie Kimball, Honda, 200.
(1) Ed Carpenter, Chevy, 200.
(13) Oriol Servia, Chevy, 200.
(23) Ryan Briscoe, Honda, 200.
(18) Takuma Sato, Honda, 200.
(16) Scott Dixon, Honda, 200.
(29) Ana Beatriz, Honda, 200.
(28) Tristan Vautier, Honda, 200.
(24) Simona De Silvestro, Chevy, 200.
(4) EJ Viso, Chevy, 200.
(6) Will Power, Chevy, 200.
(20) James Jakes, Honda, 199.
(9) James Hinchcliffe, Chevy, 199.
(31) Conor Daly, Honda, 198.
(17) D. Franchitti, Honda, 197, contact.
(11) Alex Tagliani, Honda, 196.
(26) G. Rahal, Honda, 193, contact.
(33) Katherine Legge, Honda, 193.
(22) Townsend Bell, Chevy, 192.
(25) Josef Newgarden, Honda, 191.
(15) S. Bourdais, Chevy, 178, contact.
(30) Pippa Mann, Honda, 46, contact.
(32) B. Lazier, Chevy, 44, mechanical.
(27) S. Saavedra, Chevy, 34, contact.
(10) JR Hildebrand, Chevy, 3, contact.
RACE STATISTICS WINNER’S AVERAGE SPEED 187.433 mph.
TIME OF RACE 2:40:03.4181.
MARGIN OF VICTORY Under caution.
CAUTIONS 5 for 21 laps.
LEAD CHANGES 68 among 14 drivers.
LAP LEADERS Carpenter 1-8, Kanaan 9 , Carpenter 10-12, Kanaan 13-14, Andretti 15-16, Kanaan 17-20, Andretti 21-22, Kanaan 23, Andretti 24-26, Kanaan 27-28, Andretti 29, Hunter-Reay 30, Power 31-32, Jakes 33-37, Carpenter 38-42, Andretti 43, Carpenter 44-50, Andretti 51-53, Carpenter 54-58, Hunter-Reay 59-60, Andretti 61, Hunter-Reay 62-63, Carpenter 64-72, Kanaan 73-74, Power 75-88, Kanaan 89, Viso 90, Munoz 91-92, Kanaan 93-97, Allmendinger 98-111, Kanaan 112, Andretti 113-114, Kanaan 115-120, Hunter-Reay 121, Munoz 122, Tagliani 123, Bell 124, Hinchcliffe 125, Andretti 126-130, Hunter-Reay 131, Viso 132-135, Hunter-Reay 136, Allmendinger 137-142, Hunter-Reay 143-144, Castroneves 145, Andretti 146-150, Hunter-Reay 151, Munoz 152-154, Dixon 155, Hinchcliffe 156-157, Hunter-Reay 158-164, Allmendinger 165-167, Andretti 168, Hunter-Reay 169, Andretti 170, Hunter-Reay 171, Andretti 172-173, Kanaan 174, Andretti 175, Kanaan 176-177, Munoz 178, Andretti 179, Munoz 180-184, Hinchcliffe 185-188, Kanaan 189, Hunter-Reay 190, Kanaan 191-192, Hunter-Reay 193-197, Kanaan 198-200.
POINTS Andretti 168, Sato 157, Castroneves 152, Hunter-Reay 138, Hinchcliffe 128, Wilson 125, Kanaan 124, Dixon 122, Servia 112, Pagenaud 108.
Sports, Pages 19 on 05/27/2013