Less than a month after declaring that he didn’t expect to make a decision over his future until he finished the Indy 500 in May, the 48-year-old Brazilian has declared that his 390th Indy car start will be his last.
The 2004 Indy car champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner retires with 17 wins at the top of US open-wheel racing, having been held in great affection by fans worldwide.
Kanaan won the Formula Europa Boxer championship back in 1994, sparkled and won in Italian Formula 3 in 1995, but it was his move to the US for 1996 that saw him convert his bubbling potential into season-long consistency.
Driving for Tasman Motorsports he finished second in Indy Lights in 1996, then clinched the title the following year, and graduated with Steve Horne’s team into CART Indy car the in 1998. He delivered the team a couple of podium finishes toward season’s end before moving to Forsythe Racing for 1999. There was just one podium for 'TK' that year but it was on the middle step, pouncing on Max Papis’ faltering car in the closing stages to grab victory.
Three years at Mo Nunn Racing produced several more podium finishes, but perhaps most significantly, saw he and Nunn break ranks with the CART/Champ Car faithful in May to run a one-off effort at Indy Racing League-sanctioned Indianapolis 500. Kanaan qualified Nunn’s car in fifth, led 23 laps before crashing out at half-distance with a backmarker.
Joining what was then called Andretti Green Racing for 2003, Kanaan would become one of the superstars of the Indy Racing League at the height of its war with Champ Car. He also became one of the cornerstones of the Michael Andretti/Kim Green-owned enterprise, finishing fourth in his first year with the team, and then taking the title the following year.
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Kanaan’s unerring knack of knowing the limit and understanding when and where to take risks meant he became the first driver to finish every lap in an Indy car season, racking up three wins, six runner-up finishes and two third places. Only once in 16 races did he finish outside the top five.
Kanaan never reached that height again, but over the next six years with Andretti Green (which would evolve into Andretti Autosport) he finished the season in the top three on three occasions and never fell outside the top six, and amassed 10 more wins.
Finally he departed the team in which he’d made his name to join KV Racing. Kanaan was able to deliver the team some badly-needed consistency so that he finished fifth in the 2011 championship, and was able to steer the team as IndyCar transitioned to the spec DW12 chassis and new Chevrolet twin-turbo V6 for 2012.
But his crowning achievement came the following year, when after some outrageous misfortune while running strongly at Indy over the previous decade, he finally nailed the win. He was cheered to the echo after prevailing in a gripping race that had seen 68 lead changes and 14 different leaders.
When his friend and former team-mate Dario Franchitti was injured in the penultimate race of 2013, it was Kanaan who got the nod to replace him at Chip Ganassi Racing, where he would remain for four seasons. Although Fontana 2014 would prove to be his only win for the team, he would accumulate 11 other podium finishes.
Ganassi downsized from four cars to two for 2018, and Kanaan suddenly found himself moving from one end of the grid to the other, spending his final two full seasons competing for AJ Foyt Racing, for whom he scored a podium finish at Gateway in 2019.
He became an oval-only driver for the squad in 2020, sharing the #14 with fellow champion Sebastien Bourdais, before being invited back to Ganassi for 2021 to fulfil the same role. This time, he was running ovals in the #48 car which NASCAR legend and IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson drove on road and street courses. When Johnson decided to run every round in 2022, Ganassi still offered a fifth car as a one-off for Kanaan at the 500.
Kanaan responded superbly, qualifying sixth, leading six laps and finishing third – the 79th podium finish of his illustrious career – and splitting the three drivers he’ll join as team-mates at Arrow McLaren this May – Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi.
Despite wretched luck at the 500 prior to winning the event, Kanaan has amassed nine top-five finishes at the event, and has started from the front two rows on 11 occasions in his 21 attempts, including pole position in 2005.
Kanaan’s efforts have not been entirely in Indycars over the past 25 years. In 1998 he made his Daytona 24 Hours debut, sharing a Tom Gloy-run Ford Mustang with Mike Borkowski and Robbie Buhl, finishing third in the GT1 class.
In 2007, he won the LMP2 class – and finished second overall – at the Sebring 12 Hours, driving Andretti Green’s Acura ARX-01 with Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti, and AGR’s Acura ARX-01b in 2008 provided Kanaan and Franck Montagny with a class victory at Laguna Seca.
Driving for Chip Ganassi Racing also provided Kanaan with great sportscar opportunities, and in 2015 he won the Daytona 24 Hours with Scott Dixon, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray. And like Dixon, Kanaan proved fast when drafted into the Ford GT programme for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Kanaan has told Autosport that with his open-wheel career over, he plans to pursue IMSA and WEC opportunities.
