Tony Kanaan led the IRL IndyCar® Series points race at the midpoint of the 2003 season. He’s in the same position this year, but a bit wiser and more determined to not let it slip away.
Kanaan’s victory by 0.3755 of a second over Sam Hornish Jr. in the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on July 17 solidified his hold on first place. Kanaan entered the twilight race with a 28-point advantage over Andretti Green Racing teammate Dan Wheldon and left with a 325-264 lead.
Much like Sam Hornish Jr., who in 2001 became the only driver to win the title when leading midway through the season, consistency has been the key for Kanaan. The Firestone Indy 200 was his third victory, and he has placed in the Top 10 in all eight events. Kanaan, who wound up fourth in the standings last year, is cognizant of how quickly he could fall from the top in the ultra-competitive IndyCar Series.
“To win the championship, you have to win more races than anybody,” said Kanaan, who had one victory and 12 top-10 finishes in 2003. “That was our weakness last year, and the championship is still so far away that you can lose everything in one weekend. So I’m just thinking about doing my best every weekend.”
Kanaan, who started fifth in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, overtook Wheldon for the lead on a Lap 182 restart. He also got a good jump on a restart on Lap 187 - after a three-lap caution period because of a flat right rear tire on Wheldon’s No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone - and held off Hornish and Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves to the checkered flag.
“I knew I had a pretty good car,” Kanaan said. “In the middle of the race, we got caught in a restart and I fell back. It was pretty tough to bring myself back into the race. At that point, I decided to race to the finish and just try to finish in the top three.
“Toward the end, I think Sam had a pretty strong car. I knew that because Sam was the guy I raced the whole race. I’m here to win. I’m not supposed to give up on the last lap. We did a good job.”
So did Hornish, who started ninth in the No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone. By Lap 6, he gained five spots. He was running second to MBNA pole winner Buddy Rice when the fourth yellow flag of the race flew on Lap 162. Hornish fell to third until he passed Wheldon for second on the Lap 182 restart and set his sights on Kanaan.
“The Marlboro Team Penske guys gave me awesome pit stops today, which helped us out quite a bit,” said Hornish, who recorded his best finish since winning the season-opener in February at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “The car handled really well. We just bided our time and tried to make it to end of the race, which is the key to these. I knew I wanted to wait until the last lap to get up there, try to get a run on him, and hopefully it would work. We didn’t have quite enough to get all the way up beside him.
“(The finish) really gives us a lot of momentum going into the Milwaukee race.”
During a one-day Open Test in mid-June at The Milwaukee Mile, Hornish topped the speed chart and Castroneves was second. The inaugural Menards A.J. Foyt 225 is July 25.
“I was very happy because my team definitely showed how to never give up and I’m proud of them,” said Castroneves, who was the runner-up here last year and started 11th in this race.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Darren Manning matched his season high with a fourth-place finish. He started sixth. Teammate Scott Dixon, the reigning IndyCar Series champion, started and finished eighth.
“I had such a great car that I could run wherever I wanted,” Manning said. “I was just taking my time. The Toyota has been strong. With 20 laps to go, I went on the outside of everybody. It was great. I thought I was going to come out in the lead if we had kept going.”
Townsend Bell, in his second start in the No. 2 Menards/Johns Manville Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone, finished fifth.
