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Kanaan to celebrate 17th anniversary of record consecutive race streak

By Cooper Robinson | Published: Jun 23, 2018



ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin – INDYCAR’s “Iron Man,” Tony Kanaan, will start his 293rd consecutive race in Sunday’s KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America, the longest streak in Indy car history.

The feat will come 17 years to the day after the run started at Portland International Raceway on June 24, 2001. Kanaan, driving the No. 55 Hollywood-sponsored for Mo Nunn Racing that season in CART competition and a teammate to two-time champion Alex Zanardi, missed the race the week before at Belle Isle in Detroit with a concussion.



Kanaan (shown above in 2001) was medically cleared to race at Portland, but his return to competition ended not long after it began in wet conditions on the permanent road course.

“Yeah, I was hurt but I was able to get back in the car to race,” Kanaan said. “I didn’t finish a lap as myself and Zanardi were taken out (in a crash also involving Memo Gidley).”

Kanaan qualified 18th on Saturday in the No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. Sunday’s race will mark the 353rd of his 21-year Indy car career, a total that ranks third on the all-time list behind legends Mario Andretti (407) and A.J. Foyt (369). At this rate, Kanaan would catch Foyt in the middle of next season, but overtaking Andretti would take until sometime in 2021.

When asked about his incredible streak of consecutive races, Kanaan remained appreciative for what he has been able to accomplish in a career that has yielded 17 wins, including the 2013 Indianapolis 500, and the 2004 Verizon IndyCar Series championship.

“It’s awesome, for sure. I’m really humble,” the 43-year-old said. “Looking back, to come this far is pretty nice to still be around.

“Yeah, it’s nice to be called the ‘Iron Man.’ There are guys who are as strong as me physically, but to have the durability in race starts is more suitable to say and I want to keep adding to it. I think by next year I will catch A.J. and then I’ll go after Mario.”

Dario Franchitti, the retired four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, drove against Kanaan as a competitor and with him as a teammate before Franchitti retired in 2013. The admiration remains for his long-time close friend.

“First of all, it means he’s really old,” Franchitti said with a laugh about Kanaan’s consecutive race streak, before turning serious.

“I think to do anything that long with the passion he has is incredible. I think he’s as passionate and even more focused now than he was then.”

Starting from near the rear of the 23-car grid on Sunday, Kanaan knows his work is cut out for him after qualifying.

“I got traffic on my fast lap but it would have just put us in the top 13, not enough to advance,” he said. “The car is understeering all weekend. We tried something overnight that didn’t work, so it put us behind a session and we’re back to the car we had (Friday).

“It was the same car so we were going to do the same lap time as (Friday) when we tried the reds (Firestone alternate tires), but getting traffic didn’t help. But it wasn’t going to change a lot – maybe a few positions, which always helps – but we’ve got a little bit of work to do.”

Live coverage of Sunday’s race from Road America begins at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.

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http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

 

Zvanicni strim (prateci program samo, nece prenositi trku) i tajming. Okacicu strim za trku kasnije.

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Strim za trku:

 

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Njugarden izdominirao. Trka bez ijednog zutog, Pauer otpao odmah na statyu zbog tehnickih problema, Rosi dugo bio vidjen za podijum da bi na kraju i njega urnisali gremlini, na kraju Hanter-Rej drugi, Dikson treci...

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Newgarden dominates for Road America win



By: Marshall Pruett | 6 minutes ago


Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden took control of the Kohler Grand Prix weekend on Friday with the fastest lap of the day, earned pole position on Saturday, and withstood intense pressure on Sunday to capture his third win of the season.

Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay stalked Newgarden for 55 torrid laps at Road America, got within a half-second after the final pit stop, and did his best to move the No. 28 Honda ahead of the No. 1 Chevy, but the defending series champion was too faultless and too fast to catch.

“Man, what a day,” Newgarden said after taking his 10th career win under gorgeous blue skies. “I don’t know what to say. I’m worn out! It was a day of executing. It was not as easy at it looked; I was looking in my mirrors all day at Ryan. I think the Chevy engine made the difference. Our car was phenomenal, and you just gotta keep pushing. Whenever you take it easy, that’s when bad things happen.”

Commanding 53 laps from the front of the field, Newgarden launched his bid to retain the drivers’ title as IndyCar speeds through the final eight races of the year in bold style. Circulating a 4.0-mile Road America facility packed with fans, Hunter-Reay crossed the finish line 3.3 seconds arrears confident in the fact that he got the most out of the car.

“Hats off to Josef, he did a great job,” he said. “I gave it 110 percent. We didn’t have anything for him.”

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon used more blinding pit work from his No. 9 Honda crew and a series of daring passes to improve from eighth to third at the checkered flag.

“The car’s been fast all weekend; we made a little fumble in qualifying and had we started near the front row, I think we could have won this thing,” he said. “It’s tough. The competition is very tight. Just didn’t have enough.”


Takuma Sato leads Jordan King (Image by Scott LePage/LAT)

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato put on his best performance of the season with a run to fourth in the No. 30 Honda that included some spirited passing.

“The guys did a fantastic job,” he said after coming home two positions ahead of teammate Graham Rahal. “Really happy with the result. It was a great event.”

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports completed the top five with Robert Wickens who held station in the No. 6 Honda.

“All things considered, to come home fifth was good,” said the series’ top rookie. “We wanted to be on the podium, we had a car to be on the podium, but it didn’t go our way.”

Like Sato, Spencer Pigot finally delivered the strong result he needed in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy. The young American held seventh in the waning moments of the 1h40m race but dropped to eighth when Penske’s Simon Pagenaud motored by with the end in sight. It gave Pigot his second top 10 of the year, and with teammate Jordan King finishing 12th, both ECR drivers recorded their best results to date in 2018.

With no cautions to slow the race and pack the field up, those who suffered problems were also destined to finish off the lead lap.

The race got off to a bad start for Penske’s Will Power, whose Chevy engine sounded like it was firing on fewer than six cylinders. Falling back immediately, the points leader pitted to seek repairs, returned for an exploratory lap, and pulled in to retire. Credited with 23rd place, the Australian went backwards in the championship standings as a result of the misfortune.

Sebastien Bourdais was another front-runner to experience difficulties early in the race when a shifting issue cropped up that cost the Frenchman a lap. He’d finish 13th after starting sixth.

Although Hunter-Reay showed the full potential of the Andretti team, he was shadowed by teammate Alexander Rossi past the halfway point and it looked like both drivers could have filled out the podium until the left-front camber shims in the No. 27 appeared to loosen. Forced to pit to have the problem rectified, Rossi dropped to 16th in the race which promoted Hunter-Reay to a share of second in the championship.

At the head of the standings, Dixon’s good day turned a 23-point lead entering Road America into a 45-point advantage over Hunter-Reay/Rossi in second. Newgarden, fifth coming into the weekend, improved to fourth and needs just five points to equal the Andretti duo.

Power, who led the championship after his big victory at the Indy 500, is 65 points back to Dixon in fourth.

Newgarden’s on a charge with Iowa up next, but with a stout lead in the standings, Dixon is in an enviable position. If the four-time champion can hover around the podium in the weeks ahead, the path to a fifth title could begin to appear.

The old guard pitted against the new guard, with Chevy and Honda engines offering different strengths at different tracks, is building toward a thrilling run to the season finale in September.

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[TasmanDevil]

Ne pratim mnogo ove sezone, mada mi je Indycar daleko zanimljiviji od Formule 1, pa da te pitam sto je Marco Andretti ovolko slab ove sezone? Jes da nije talenat kao cale i deda, ali opet imao je neke rezultate.

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On je slab vec ohoho sezona. Niko ne zna u cemu je stvar, bude obicno dobar na slobodnim treninzima a onda kad se racuna on nestane. Definitivno ume da vozi, talenat nije sporan ali neki kurslus u glavi postoji. Da ne vozi za porodicnu firmu vec bi odavno popio otkaz.

 

Isto takav je bio i mali Rehol do pre koju godinu i onda je odjednom kliknulo i sad je jedan od boljih vozaca u sampionatu - ne ono bas vrh, ali tu negde kao Kultard ili Veber onomad u F1, zabode poneku pobedu, mota se oko podijuma stalno, i ako se kockice bas poslose moze da napadne i titulu.

[TasmanDevil]

Hvala na odgovoru. Ovu sezonu pratim, i naravno svaki indy 500 ali nisam redovan u zadnjih nekoliko sezona. Marco je bio wonderkid, ali eto, nije bas opravdao teret slavne porodice.

 

Grejem je solidan ove sezone, ali meni je cale Bobby uvek bio smeker. 

 

Ne znam, nekako mi ovi indy a ranije i CART vozaci imaju dusu vise nego formula 1. A o zanimljivosti trka ne vredi ni pocinjati, tu je indy miljama ispred.

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Harding Racing is looking to run a second car later in the season as a preview for a possible full-time expansion to two Verizon IndyCar Series entries in 2019.

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MILLER: IndyCar's home on the Road



By: Robin Miller | 5 hours ago


The two kids from Appleton sported Hinchtown and Ryan Hunter-Reay T-shirts, while a 20-something from Kenosha proudly wore an Alexander Rossi jersey, a pair of teenage girls from Milwaukee modeled freshly-minted Will Power Indy 500 winner shirts and two old boys from Fond du Lac donned Tony Kanaan hats. It seemed like every fifth person in the paddock last Sunday was wearing a shirt or hat of their favorite IndyCar driver.

There was a damn good crowd on Friday, more people on Saturday than at any other IndyCar race this season except Indianapolis and Long Beach and Sunday was easily pushing 45,000.

They came early and stayed late while getting selfies with drivers and close-ups of cars.

If there is truly a home track for IndyCar racing it’s Road America because the fans are invested, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. They watch the races on NBCSN, they read RACER along with all the other websites that feature IndyCar and they recognize Zach Veach right along with Josef Newgarden. It’s so refreshing for the drivers, teams and IndyCar officials to come to Elkhart Lake because it’s a big-event atmosphere at the baddest, coolest, most scenic road course in North America.

“Obviously it’s fun to drive because it’s so fast and challenging but the people make it so special — did you see that crowd today?” exclaimed Scott Dixon after finishing third in the Kohler Grand Prix.


Scott Dixon races out of Turn 6 at Road America. (Image by Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar)

What Dixie didn’t have to say was that unlike many tracks where he can move about in relative obscurity, the four-time champ and current point leader can’t go five feet in Wisconsin because everybody knows him.

So it’s really hard to imagine that IndyCar didn’t run here from 2008 to 2015.

But we owe a debt of gratitude to Derrick Walker, because he was the guy back that got IndyCar back to this legendary 4-mile track. And Walker credits Road America president George Bruggenthies for putting IndyCar back on the map in Wisconsin.

“I met George when he put in a bid to save Milwaukee and he had already done some good things to save Road America,” said Walker, who was IndyCar’s president of competition from 2012-2015. “I think there would have been weeds growing around Road America without George and he’s kinda like a Marine always charging up the hill and getting things done.

“At that time his track wasn’t making money and in my opinion the old sanctioning body was gouging people, so there wasn’t a race up there for a number of years. But when Mark (Miles) took over he was good to let me try to get it back and it was instantly obvious George wanted to make it work.

“IndyCar didn’t nickel and dime him to death, nor did he to us, and we got a deal done quickly.”


Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti duel in the Road America sunshine. (Image by Scott LePage/LAT)

Bruggenthies knows his audience, the climate and what makes for a good show. He basically told IndyCar it’s going to be a noon start, not something ridiculous like Milwaukee failed with at 3 or 4 o’clock, because he wanted fans to be able to get back home Sunday night at a decent hour. He also demanded a late June date because the weather is usually perfect.

After three consecutive home runs, Big George looks pretty smart and he re-upped for three years over the weekend.

“The thing that makes the difference is George and his team,” continued Walker. “He’s a good promoter and he works hard and I think today there’s a bit more of a realization that we need each other than there was 10 years ago. I think IndyCar is keen to make it work for both parties.

“It would have been interesting to see what George could have done with Milwaukee. He saw it as a joint promotion for both events and maybe he could have saved it as well.”

These are tough times for all sanctioning bodies, tracks and promoters. IndyCar’s Jay Frye and Miles are trying to keep a balance of ovals, road courses and street circuits in the most diverse series in the world against the odds of making a little profit for everyone.

The 2019 schedule is a work in progress but thankfully has some popular mainstays like Long Beach, Barber, St. Pete, Mid-Ohio, Gateway and Road America already locked and loaded.

I’m a crabby 68-year-old who has been covering IndyCar racing for 50 years and I don’t get very excited about anything anymore. But being at Elkhart Lake once a year is an exception. It’s a classic road course in the middle of beautiful country packed with passionate people who truly get it — and like it.

So it’s hard not to smile all weekend.

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Testiranje na Ajova Spidveju, gde ce se onog tamo vikenda voziti sledeca Indikar trka:
 

Hunter-Reay leads Andretti sweep at Iowa test



By: Marshall Pruett | 2 hours ago


Former Iowa Speedway race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay lead an Andretti Autosport 1-2-3-4 during a test on Wednesday that featured more than half the Verizon IndyCar Series field.

Unofficial lap times had Hunter-Reay fastest (17.72s) around the 0.875-mile oval with teammates Alexander Rossi (17.75s), Marco Andretti (17.77s), and Zach Veach (17.80s) atop the group with their Honda-powered cars. Behind them, Team Penske Chevy followed close behind with Josef Newgarden in fifth (17.84s), Will Power in sixth (17.86s) and Simon Pagenaud (17.91s) in seventh.

For Veach, the quickest rookie in the lead group, lending a fresh perspective to driving an Indy car in 2018 low-downforce specification around Iowa generated familiar feedback heard at other ovals this season.

“It was the same kind of story: the second lane will be important to get rubbered in, but we’ll see if that happens,” he told RACER. “With the downforce levels we’re at, it was very light on the front end.”

Having finished second at the 2016 Indy Lights race in Iowa, stepping up to the top series and getting a feel for the aerodynamic turbulence and tire conservation needs was a big part of Veach’s data gathering on Wednesday.

“We all went out with the Penskes as well to run in a big group to see how our cars reacted,” he added. “It’s going to be another case of good cars making the difference like we saw at Texas because there’s a lot of lifting, and most of all, managing tires will make the difference.”

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Honda duo of James Hinchcliffe (17.99s) and Robert Wickens (18.10s) were next in eighth and ninth and Ed Carpenter completed the top 10 (18.19s) with his Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy.

Completing the testing group, Harding Racing’s Gabby Chaves (18.39s) was 11th with his Chevy and had ECR’s Spencer Pigot close behind (18.40s). A.J. Foyt Racing’s Matheus Leist was the final runner (18.71s) for Chevy.

Veach was pleased with Andretti Autosport’s pace at the test, and he’ll use the week leading up to the July 8 race to form a game plan.

“It was a good test for us speed wise, but I’m still trying to get my head wrapped around a short oval in an IndyCar,” he said. “It’s so easy to push too hard and hurt your tires, and once you’re in trouble there, it’s hard to recover. You’re almost never pointed straight, so getting clean air, however much that’s possible, is really going to help. I think this is going to be another big challenge for everyone on an oval.”

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Cela trka sa Elkart Lejka:

 

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Pietro Fittipaldi returned to the racetrack for the first time earlier this week to turn laps in a kart as part of rehabilitation for the broken leg and ankle he suffered in an FIA World Endurance Championship event.

Based on what he experienced with the kart, the Verizon IndyCar Series rookie says getting behind the wheel of the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda at Mid-Ohio will not be a problem.

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