{"id":1310658,"date":"2019-05-24T14:12:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T20:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/tony-kanaan-expects-most-competitive-indy-500-in-his-18-years\/"},"modified":"2019-05-24T14:12:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T20:12:01","slug":"tony-kanaan-expects-most-competitive-indy-500-in-his-18-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tony-kanaan-expects-most-competitive-indy-500-in-his-18-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Kanaan expects most competitive Indy 500 in his 18 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tony Kanaan, of Brazil, waits for the start of the final practice session for the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Friday, May 24, 2019, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo\/AJ Mast)<\/strong>
AP | FR123854 AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Tony Kanaan anticipates the most competitive Indianapolis 500 in his 18 years in the race.<\/p>\n

In other words, Kanaan will need all the speed he finally found Friday.<\/p>\n

Kanaan turned a quick lap of 225.517 mph to top the charts in final practice for Sunday\u2019s running of \u201cThe Greatest Spectacle in Racing.\u201d And it came after Kanaan was vocal in his displeasure of his No. 14 car for A.J. Foyt Enterprises after the penultimate practice session this past Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happier because I found a couple things, not because we were at the top,\u201d said the popular Kanaan, who won the race in 2013. \u201cI was not happy Monday. I was extremely angry about it. But starting 16th, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to see cars passing cars right away. The field is so tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rookie driver Santino Ferrucci was second fastest for Dale Coyne Racing, and former race winner Takuma Sato was third fastest in his Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.<\/p>\n

In fact, the top six cars after Kanaan were carrying Honda power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most competitive field I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Kanaan said. \u201cQualifying was extremely hard and it\u2019s really tight. I think it\u2019s going to be a difficult race. I do strongly believe everybody who is starting this race can win this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The annual Carb Day revelry ahead of the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 got off to a soggy start as a line of storms rolled over Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which closed its gates briefly as lightning lit up the sky.<\/p>\n

The storms moved away quickly, leaving in their wake a hot, humid day for thousands of fans taking in the festivities. The rain delayed the start of practice for about 15 minutes, but it still went off without any serious problems. It was followed by the Freedom 100 race for Indy Lights, the fan-friendly pit stop competition and an infield concert headlined by Foreigner.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a rainy month of May at Indianapolis, and there is more rain in the forecast for this weekend. Some meteorologists have predicted a 90 percent chance of rain on race day.<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions look pretty similar to what we\u2019re going to see Sunday,\u201d Kanaan said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to be patient and you\u2019re going to have to dial it in extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n

ASKEW WINS FREEDOM 100<\/p>\n

Indy Lights newcomer Oliver Askew passed teammate Ryan Norman at the line to win the Freedom 100 by a mere 0.0067 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in race history.<\/p>\n

Askew took the lead entering the final lap, and it appeared Norman would be able to use the draft to pass again for the win. He swung past on the outside along the backstretch and led through the first two turns, but Askew roared down the front stretch and nipped Norman at the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never raced in front of so many people in my life,\u201d Askew said. \u201cThis is so unbelievable. I woke up this morning and felt like this could be the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norman gave Andretti Autosport a 1-2 finish in the IndyCar feeder series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing just wasn\u2019t on my side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The race began with a harrowing crash involving Chris Windom and David Malukas, leaving each of their cars shredded on the front stretch. Windom\u2019s car briefly surfed along the catch fence, and the race had to be red-flagged while track officials repaired it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just lost it in front of me,\u201d Windom said. \u201cI had nowhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCHMIDT PETERSON WINS PIT STOP CHALLENGE<\/p>\n

Marcus Ericsson and his Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team beat Scott Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing in the best-of-three final to win the annual pit stop challenge.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time in 15 years that anybody but Ganassi or Team Penske won the event.<\/p>\n

Ericsson dumped both powerhouse teams from the competition, beating Penske drivers Josef Newgarden in the quarterfinals and Will Power in the final. He beat Dixon in the first race of the finals, lost the second but had the preferred lane choice for the decider by having the best single run.<\/p>\n

Ericsson chose the left lane easily beat Dixon to win the $50,000 prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great for the guys. They work all winter long and it\u2019s all about them,\u201d said team owner Sam Schmidt, whose crews lost in the finals each of the past three years. \u201cFantastic event.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Kanaan, of Brazil, waits for the start of the final practice session for the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Friday, May 24, 2019, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo\/AJ Mast)AP | FR123854 AP INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Tony Kanaan anticipates the most competitive Indianapolis 500 in his 18 years in the race. In other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 00:00:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}