Tony Kanaan, Target Chip Ganassi Racing
The cast: Race engineer – Chris Simmons. Race strategist – Chip Ganassi/Barry Wanser. Chief mechanic – Kevin O’Donnell.
Twitter: @TonyKanaan, @CGRTeams
The car: No. 10 Chevrolet, Target primary sponsorship
The driver: Tony Kanaan turns 40 on Dec. 31. … From Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, he resides with his wife, Lauren, in Miami. The couple is expecting its first child. … He is the Indy car racing record-holder with 233 consecutive starts (streak started at Portland in 2001) and ranks in the top 10 all time in top-five finishes (117). … He won the 2004 series championship and the 2013 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.
Season finish: Placed seventh in Verizon IndyCar Series championship standings – 19 points out of sixth – which was four positions higher than 2013 (his only non-top 10 since joining the Verizon IndyCar Series full time in 2003).
The gist: Kanaan, who has made 294 Indy car starts, completed his first season with Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Effectively, he took over the seat of the retired Dario Franchitti, a longtime friend and teammate. … The 1997 Dayton Indy Lights champion made his Indy car debut in 1998, earning the CART Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year award. He won for the first time in July 1999 at Michigan. … In 2003, he started on the pole in the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway and won from the pole in the next race at Phoenix International Raceway for first-year entrant Andretti Green Racing. … Kanaan, who in his championship season completed every race lap, has been running at the finish in 230 of his 294 starts.
Season stats: Kanaan opened the season with a front-row start at St. Petersburg and claimed four other top-five qualifying runs (13 in the top 10 overall in the 18 races; all in top 10 in second half of season). … He closed the season with five podium finishes in the final seven races (contact at Mid-Ohio on first lap after qualifying third relegated him to 21st place), including his 17th career victory in the finale at Auto Club Speedway. After dominating at Iowa Speedway (leading 247 of the 300 laps) after qualifying second, he was overtaken by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden in the final two laps and finished third. He recorded 12 top-10 finishes overall. … Kanaan led six races for total of 407 laps (second to series champion Will Power) and was running at the finish in 16 races. He surpassed Rick Mears (3,435) on the career list with 3,746 laps led.
Year over year: 2013 best qualifying fourth at Toronto1 (11.3 average), best finish first in Indianapolis 500 Mile Race (12.7 average) with KV Racing Technology-SH Racing. 2014 best qualifying second at St. Petersburg, Iowa and Milwaukee (9.2 average), best finish first at Auto Club Speedway (9.3 average).
Video: Tony Kanaan reviews his season
He said it: “It was a big transition; a big team with a lot of resources and a lot of engineers -- a lot more than I was used to. We started the year a little slow and then we got it right toward to end so I'm looking forward to next year. I can't Chip (Ganassi) and Target enough for the opportunity."
The chart (below): Looking at how Kanaan finished relative to his qualifying position:
Click to download the hi-res infographic
