Tony Kanaan is more prepared than ever for this year’s Indianapolis 500, which will be 22nd attempt at winning the famous race.
In that time, he has raced for five different teams, including Andretti Autosport and Chip Ganassi Racing, and won the race once in 2013 with KV Racing.
As one of the most well-rounded drivers in this year’s lineup, the 48-year-old has possibly the best understanding of how his team, Arrow McLaren for this year, is stacking up against the competition.
During a break in practice on Wednesday, Kanaan was asked by NBC Sports how much his experience and tenure with other teams will help his bid for a second Indy 500 win this year.
“I think I know exactly what they’ve [Ganassi] got,” said Kanaan, who finished third driving for that team last season. “And I know exactly what I’ve got. Now I just need to put the pieces of the puzzle together. They’re still going to be very strong. I think Penske came up as well.
“But yes, I have both comparisons, and I know exactly what they have. It’s going to be up to us. So many things can happen. We’re going to have to draw for qualifying, that’s going to be a big factor. Then you have to put yourself in the Fast 12.
“Look back at ’13, right? At how many lead changes we had. Everybody had a real good chance of winning this race.
“Nowadays, I truly believe the way we have our cars, and how this series is so competitive, if you’re not in the top five in the last pit stop, most likely you’re not winning this race.
“You’ll see back in the days like Dario [Franchitti] going a lap down, coming back and winning. I find that extremely hard nowadays. We have too many good cars. And too many good drivers.
“We try not to stress. The team is very well prepared. We started the season extremely strong with all three cars, and now hopefully we have all four cars really strong.
“I’m confident. We’ve done a great job, and we’ve done everything we could here to put ourselves in that position. We have the drivers lined up. We have second, third, fourth, and fifth place finish in last year’s 500 in this team.
“We’re not missing experience. The equipment is good. We just have to execute.”
Kanaan was in the middle of the pack during the series’ open test session on April 21, and was the lowest Arrow McLaren driver in early running on Wednesday’s first practice session.
But only the teams know exactly what setups they are testing on track, and what Kanaan knows has left him confident heading into what is set to be his final Indy 500.
