INDIANAPOLIS — The first garage stall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the one located only a hammer’s throw from the legendary Gasoline Alley entrance sign, has been reserved for A.J. Foyt for so long no one can remember a time when that wasn’t the spot where the living racing legend spends his months of May.
It’s easy to spot. It’s the only garage stall where people are perpetually lined up, waiting patiently for permission to enter and have an audience with the original four-time Indianapolis 500 champion. Foyt never makes anyone kiss his checkered-flag ring. But if he offered his hand, they would probably drop to a knee and pucker up.
If one is to truly be the Godfather, racing’s Don Corleone, then he needs a younger version of himself by his side, an apprentice of only slightly less revered stature, whom others may also approach to ask favors and advice. This year, sitting in a folding chair only a few paces from where Foyt held court, it is obvious that, after all these years and all those other drivers, Don Super Tex has finally found his Michael.
« Is that who I am? » Tony Kanaan says with a laugh. « I will take that. I grew up in Brazil watching the Indy 500 with my father and I used to dream about one day sitting in A.J. Foyt’s garage, just to watch and listen to the stories. Now, there I am. I can’t believe it. It’s a dream. »
Kanaan had just frantically screeched up in a golf cart Saturday morning, arriving only seconds before the start of a guest spot on ESPN Radio’s Marty & McGee. He apologizes for nearly being late. That’s not how TK normally rolls. But he admittedly hasn’t yet figured out how to gauge the rhythm of his new world. Yes, this is his 17th Indy 500 (Sunday, 11 a.m. ET, ABC), but it is his first time here driving for Foyt, with whom he signed last fall.
Among active drivers, Kanaan is the most popular with Indianapolis 500 fans. Among all-time drivers, the most beloved is Foyt. Their combined star power has created twice the usual pedestrian traffic jam anywhere and everywhere they go.
« Everything I do has to have extra time added to it now and I haven’t quite gotten that math figured out yet, » Kanaan says. « After all these years, you learn, OK, when I leave my garage to go to this or that, then I need to allow five extra minutes to sign autographs for the fans waiting between here and there. Now, you take my fan base and add it to A.J.’s. Believe me, now I need to allow for way more than five minutes. »
The construction of such followings has been done through success on the track. Foyt has written entire pages of the Indy 500 and IndyCar Series record books. Kanaan has won 17 races over a career that spans two decades.
That brings us to the other major plank upon which their fan bases were built — longevity. Foyt made 35 starts in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the first in 1958. He was 58 when he ran his final 500 in 1993. At 43, Kanaan is the oldest driver in this year’s 33-car field.
That comes with pluses and minuses.
« I used to be one of the young guys, didn’t I? Now I get all the ‘give us the old guy’s perspective’ questions, » says the former member of open wheel racing’s « Brat Pack » of the late 1990s, with Helio Castroneves, Max Papis, Greg Moore and Dario Franchitti. Castroneves will be in Sunday’s race, but Kanaan is the last full-time IndyCar driver remaining from that group. « After all these years, I hear that role of ‘mentor’ used to describe me all the time. Maybe that is just another word for ‘old,’ but it is a role I take very seriously. »
Within the Foyt Racing stable, Kanaan acts as a mentor to teammate and fellow Brazilian Matheus Leist. « Matt » is 19 years old, a millennial with a head of curly hair. During Thursday’s Indy 500 media day, Kanaan gave Leist a pair of Groucho Marx glasses, making fun of the veteran’s famously prominent nose, and promising that if his teenage teammate wins Sunday’s race he will stop shaving his head and let it grow out to Leist-like shagginess. He made Leist promise to shave his head if Kanaan wins. Hair clippers aside, Leist says the two already have established a strong connection in a short period of time. Much like Kanaan’s relationship with former teammate Marco Andretti, who was 19 when he made his IndyCar debut in 2006.
« If young drivers need someone to talk to, to give them some advice, then I am always there for them, » Kanaan says of his sensei efforts. « It’s something I have always enjoyed. It is me giving back to the sport that has given me so much. »
It’s a role that Foyt has known and enjoyed for decades. He is one of the few in the IndyCar paddock who brings enough success and experience to allow him to play the role of mentor to Kanaan. Likewise, Kanaan is really the only current driver with the kind of résumé that allows him to give advice to his notoriously stubborn boss.
43-year old Tony Kanaan on his mentor role with 19-year old A.J. Foyt Racing teammate Matheus Leist: « This is what happens when you hang around long enough to the old guy at the Indy 500. You also become the mentor guy. » https://t.co/9OCYqGe6jB pic.twitter.com/NxKAVhbof5
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) May 24, 2018
« We had been talking for a while and he was looking for a ride after 2017, wanting to run a few more years, so we brought him onboard, » Foyt explains now. « We have a new car in IndyCar this year and it kind of levels things out for the field, so the time was right to bring in someone who knows how to win and comes from teams like he came from (Andretti Autosport, Chip Ganassi Racing), and he brings a lot of knowledge from those places. »
With that knowledge he also has brought a lot of change. Foyt Racing long ago fell off the pace of the sport’s largest teams, particularly on the engineering side. Kanaan brought with him Eric Crowdin, now technical director for the team and race engineer for Kanaan. Crowdin worked with Kanaan for 15 of his 17 career wins and also spent time at Penske Racing, winning five races with Ryan Briscoe. Working with team president Larry Foyt, A.J.’s son, Crowdin immediately brought in new faces and overhauled the team’s race preparation processes, from driver simulators to more on-track testing.
Kanaan has moved his family to Indianapolis, choosing to be as close to the team as possible, routinely coming to the Speedway, Indiana, race shop to meet and work out with the crew of the famous No.14 Chevy in the shadow of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team has won just once over the past decade. Kanaan realized very quickly how far from the front his new ride is, with only a pair of eighth-place finishes over the first five races of the 2018 IndyCar season. But he and Leist both qualified in the top 11 for Sunday’s race, and when Friday’s Carburetion Day final practice ended, it was Kanaan who was atop the speed charts.
« I can think of nothing more rewarding than if I were to have some hand in getting A.J. Foyt Racing turned into the right direction, into the future, » Kanaan says. « I can’t imagine what it might do for this town and the speedway if these cars were running near the front on a regular basis. »
He is asked about his Indy 500 win in 2013, driving for underfunded KV Racing Technology and outdueling a trio of Andretti Autosport drivers.
« That was the greatest day of my life. It came at a low point in my career, when people said I was done and I had lost my edge. This crowd, they roared so loud. They loved my underdog story and I learned that day that they really love me. »
The Brazilian Michael Corleone of Speedway, Indiana, starts nodding his head. His eyes sparkle like he’s a 20-something again.
« Can you imagine what they would do if I won it again, driving A.J.’s No. 14 car? They might tear the grandstands down. And I will help them. »
http://www.espn.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/23618767/2018-indianapolis-500-tony-kanaan-fight-make-aj-foyt-racing-relevant-again-indycar
