Kanaan Charges to Sixth at Toronto

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer

TORONTO — Tony Kanaan scored his best finish of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season on the streets of Toronto as he got his No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet to a sixth place finish for A. J. Foyt Racing.

Kanaan moved to 13th on the start up from his 15th place starting position and gradually moved through the field. Kanaan got to 11th on the second lap of the race and got as high as sixth before making his first pit stop on Lap 22.

The 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner was back in 15th after his first pit stop but Ryan Hunter-Reay’s stalled car on Lap 28 brought out a full course yellow and numerous cars had to make their first pit stops under yellow because they hadn’t stopped yet.

Kanaan moved up to eighth position which became seventh after Josef Newgarden had light contact with the Turn 11 wall on the Lap 33 restart. Kanaan then picked up sixth place moving around James Hinchcliffe on Lap 40 and moved to the lead during the second round of pit stops before he pitted for the final time on Lap 57.

Kanaan then rejoined in eighth position which became seventh after Takuma Sato had contact late in the race and that became sixth after Marco Andretti had a late race fuel stop.

That finish was A. J. Foyt Racing’s best finish of the year and was quite timely after its eponymous team owner is at home recovering from back surgery.

“We’ve been fighting quite hard all year long to keep in the top six,” said Kanaan. “Today was a good day for us. We got great pit stops, good passing, we had some passing there and obviously a few accidents that helped us out. Really happy, I think a great effort by the whole team, unfortunately A.J. is not here, he’s recovering at home so I’m pretty sure that’s cheering him up.

“We’ve been working together quite hard and it’s been paying off. We’ve had a tough year so far but when I signed this deal, I promised Larry and A.J. that I will not quit racing until I put them where they deserve. I don’t care how long it’s going to take but we’re going to do it.”

Kanaan and the rest of the Foyt team are testing at Mid-Ohio this week and this race was well timed for the mechanics that had to turn around all of the cars to a road course setup instead of a street course setup.

The next IndyCar race is the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 29th.