Tony Kanaan Played A Key Role In Jimmie Johnson’s Two-Year IndyCar Career

Without Tony Kanaan, Jimmie Johnson admits it would have been difficult to put a deal together that brought him to the NTT IndyCar Series in 2021.

Kanaan, winner of the 2013 Indianapolis 500 and 2004 IndyCar Series champion, announced on February 15 that this year’s Indianapolis 500 would the final IndyCar race of his career.

Johnson, who has returned to the NASCAR Cup Series as an owner at Legacy Motor Club, is returning to the track for the 65^th Daytona 500 on Sunday. Johnson will be back in action during Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duels qualifying races in the No. 84 Carvana Chevrolet. He is assured a starting position in Sunday’s race based on his qualifying speed as the fastest of the drivers who are not locked into the field because of NASCAR’s Charter System.

The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion retired from full-time stock car competition after the 2020 season. He made a dramatic career move by shifting gears to the NTT IndyCar Series.

Originally, he wanted to compete on the street and road course races on the schedule. As a family man, he thought the high-speed racing on ovals was more than he wanted to tackle at that time.

When he approached team owner Chip Ganassi with his idea to run a street and road course schedule, the team owner was interested but wanted to create a full-time entry. That meant Johnson and the team would need to line up a driver to race on the ovals, including the biggest race of them all, the Indianapolis 500.

Back in 2020, Kanaan had announced it would be his final year of racing in the NTT IndyCar Series. He was running a limited schedule for AJ Foyt Racing and wanted a chance to say farewell to his large legion of fans.

Then COVID-19 struck, and fans were either prohibited or severely limited from attending large sporting events.

Kanaan still had the desire to compete and when Johnson approached him with a plan to share the No. 48 Carvana/American Legion Honda at Chip Ganassi Racing, the two accomplished race drivers became co-pilots.

That gave Johnson time to learn the new artform and skill required in an Indy car while Johnson could floor the accelerator on the ovals.

In four oval races that season, Kanaan’s best race was the Indianapolis 500. He started fifth and finished 10^th in a car sponsored by The American Legion.

By the time the 2021 Indianapolis 500 was completed, Johnson had the urge to compete in the big race in 2022. He convinced his wife and family that he was impressed with the safety-measures of the Indy car and wanted a chance to compete in the race he dreamed of when he was a kid growing up in El Cajon, California.

Johnson ultimately agreed to a full season of IndyCar action in 2022. Ganassi rewarded Kanaan with a ride in the 106^th Indianapolis 500.

It was Kanaan’s only IndyCar race of the season and he showed he still had the same fierce tenacity that made him one of the all-time great drivers at Indy. He started sixth and finished third in the No. 1 American Legion Honda and was in position to win the race at the end as teammate Marcus Ericsson and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward were slugging it out in the final laps.

That would be the last time Kanaan raced for the team. He signed an Indy 500 deal with Arrow McLaren for this year and hopes to go out a winner of May 28.

Johnson and Kanaan were more than just co-pilots at Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021. They became great friends.

I had a chance to speak to Johnson during Daytona 500 Media Day at Daytona International Speedway and asked his thoughts on Kanaan’s decision.

“I love being around him,” Johnson told me. “He and his family are so much fun. He is so intense in a good way emotionally. Where he is in life, these moments mean so much. I share that and recognize that. We’ve had a lot of time talking about how special these opportunities are at our age and the quality of rides that we are both able to have experiences with.

“I texted him today and he shared how cool it was to create this extension together.

“I asked him if he was done racing and he said, ‘F Off. I’m not done racing.’”

Kanaan refuses to use the word “retirement” regarding Wednesday’s announcement. At 48, he plans on competing in other forms of racing in the United States and in his homeland of Brazil.

The kid from South America and the kid from Southern California went on to play a key role in each other’s recent careers and forged a friendship for a lifetime.

“I know it’s bittersweet, but I also feel like it’s more sweet because when he and I started this wild idea to share a car,” Johnson told me. “We went to Chip (Ganassi) with the idea, I didn’t know if it was going to work. He didn’t know if it was going to work. He kind of felt like his last IndyCar race had happened and he might luck into a 500 opportunity, but we really thought we were playing with house money.

“I think he – especially with last year’s running of the Indianapolis 500 and how close he came and finishing where he did, how much fun we had as a group that whole month – he was on his toes and truly had the best experience. I, personally as a friend, I’m happy that we had that. We kind of did that for each other in creating that ride in the No. 48 car. I just wish him the best for this year’s 500. I know he’s going to be a fierce competitor and jump in the car and be on it.

“It would be great to see him have that success once again.”

Johnson’s connection to Kanaan is the strongest bond of any driver entered in this year’s Daytona 500. But four other drivers all have connections to Kanaan from earlier in their career.

AJ Allmendinger was on the road to IndyCar stardom when he arrived in the Champ Car Series in 2004. In 2006, he won five races in Champ Car, but at that time, Indy car racing was still split with teams from Champ Car continuing to boycott the Indianapolis 500, which was part of the Indy Racing League.

By the time Champ Car ceased operation and its teams were absorbed by the IRL to become today’s IndyCar Series, Allmendinger had already moved to NASCAR.

In 2013, however, team owner Roger Penske hired Allmendinger for a limited race schedule including the Indianapolis 500.

Allmendinger competed in six IndyCar races that year and finished seventh in the Indy 500, leading 23 laps in the No. 2 IZOD Chevrolet.

Kanaan was the winner of that race, the only time he won the Indianapolis 500 after coming close in so many previous attempts.

“He was a ‘Racer’s Racer,’” Allmendinger told me on February 15. “That dude would wheel anything. You got back and look at some of the starts and restarts at Indy and he had Cajones.”

If not for the split, Allmendinger and Kanaan could have competed against each other in many more races. Thankfully for the sport, it’s mean complete since 2008.

“For me, it was back to racing against the best of the best again,” Allmendinger said. “That is what we both missed in Champ Car and the IRL split. We had great guys in both series but did not have the best of the best together. That side of those guys, I never really got to know them – the Helio Castroneves’ and the TK’s until I got to race against them. That was a lot of fun for me. Those guys put us together, but I didn’t know them that well until I got to race against them. Getting to know them was great for me.

“The Indy 500 is a lot like the Daytona 500. You can have such talented race drivers have an opportunity to win it and not win it. Look at Michael Andretti.

“I don’t know why these big races; they choose who they want to win. Tony had been up front so many years. Maybe the year we all thought this wouldn’t be the car that he wins in and that’s what he wins in.

“I’m disappointed it wasn’t me, but TK is a hell of a race driver on the ovals especially. One the best we’ve ever seen in IndyCar.

“Hopefully, he’s up front again at that thing.”

Kyle Larson is the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion. He is also one of the most versatile racing drivers in the United States. From Sprint cars on dirt to sports cars at Daytona, Larson can win in any kind of racing machine.

Larson gets his first chance at the Indianapolis 500 in 2024 when he drives for Arrow McLaren in a joint effort with NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick.

“When I was with Chip Ganassi, Tony Kanaan was one of our teammates for the Rolex 24,” Larson told me. “I always enjoyed working with him. He was hilarious. I loved our team. If I was running the Rolex 24 ever again, I would want the same exact team again with Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, and Jamie McMurray.

“Getting to know Tony was great. I’m the same size as him. It was fun times with him.

“He has meant a lot to motorsports in general, especially IndyCar. He has had a great career. I hope he has a great run. He has been a great ambassador. It’s great to see him end his Indy 500 career this year and hopefully, he’ll get a win.”

Conor Daly was an Indianapolis 500 rookie in 2013 and considers it an honor that his first Indy 500 start was Kanaan’s only Indy 500 win.

“It was really cool to race against Tony because I had his hero cards when I was a kid,” Daly told me at Daytona. “My first Indianapolis 500 was when Tony Kanaan won, so that was pretty cool.

“Tony Kanaan is a legend. I’d like to see Tony Kanaan try the Daytona 500 one day. It was an honor to race with him and one last time at the Indy 500 this year will be awesome. I’m very excited about it.”

Austin Cindric is the defending Daytona 500 champion. His father is Team Penske President Tim Cindric and young Cindric’s racing heroes were all IndyCar drivers.

He dreamed of one day winning the Indianapolis 500 but became a Daytona 500 champion instead.

“I was sitting in the grandstands in 2013 when TK won the Indianapolis 500 and that was a great memory. If one of the Team Penske drivers couldn’t be in the lead of the Indianapolis 500, I always wanted to see TK take the lead because the crowd would go crazy.

“That was always so cool to experience that.”

When Tony Kanaan and Jimmie Johnson teamed up in 2021, it gave both drivers a chance to experience something unique in racing.

Most importantly, it created a lasting friendship.