{"id":1445,"date":"2010-04-17T05:18:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-17T05:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/grand-prix-kanaan-looks-for-better-luck-in-long-beach\/"},"modified":"2010-04-17T05:18:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-17T05:18:00","slug":"grand-prix-kanaan-looks-for-better-luck-in-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/grand-prix-kanaan-looks-for-better-luck-in-long-beach","title":{"rendered":"Grand Prix: Kanaan Looks For Better Luck In Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photos by Nate Toering<\/em><\/p>\n

The 35-year old Brazilian hops out of his 7-Eleven IndyCar after setting the third-best lap time of the day, having earned 13 series victories and a 2004 championship in eight IndyCar seasons, and makes a beeline to talk strategy with his team boss: Michael Andretti.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I can put a value on that,\u201d says Tony Kanaan, on the guidance that his racing legend team owner brings to the table. Even after setting a blistering practice lap on Friday, driver and owner heatedly discussed strategy for several minutes before the wisened Andretti began to chuckle and the empassioned Kanaan began to ease up as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really calms me down,\u201d Kanaan says with a giant trademark smile. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t tell me to calm down, but he says things like it\u2019s ok, this has happened before. We\u2019re going to be ok.\u201d<\/p>\n

The combination of talent, experience and guidance is extremely rare even in the high-stakes world of auto racing. But Tony Kanaan is not your typical driver. Along with superstars like Helio Castroneves, Kanaan is one of IndyCar\u2019s longest-tenured recognizable stars, with a loyal fanbase and plenty of quality years left in the tank.<\/p>\n

This weekend, he\u2019s one of the drivers favored to add another notch to his legend with a victory at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

After a record-setting career in the world of kart racing before coming to larger open-wheeled cars and finally IndyCar, he\u2019s also considered a road and street course specialist. So Kanaan and Long Beach would seem to be a perfect fit, right?<\/p>\n

Despite overall success here in the past \u2013 he finished third in last year\u2019s Grand Prix of Long Beach \u2013 Kanaan has not been able to capitalize on his street course expertise nor the guidance of a high-profile team like Andretti Racing and has gone the past 22 months without an IndyCar win.<\/p>\n

\"\"Then there\u2019s that other glaring omission: an elusive Indianapolis 500 victory that seems to be forever just inches out of Kanaan\u2019s grasp. Despite his obvious talents and past successes, Kanaan\u2019s legacy could be marked as what could have been unless he can score some high profile victories.  <\/p>\n

The glamorous Grand Prix of Long Beach would be a good place to start.<\/p>\n

With attention going to the star power of drivers like Dario Franchitti, Danica Patrick and Castroneves at this year\u2019s race in Long Beach, Kanaan doesn\u2019t have the pressure that usually accompanies him to such events. Also, with four Andretti Racing drivers participating in the event, Kanaan is able to share information with his teammates that could prove to make the difference as each driver tries to prep their car perfectly for the rigourous street course.<\/p>\n

Kanaan posted the third-best time (1:10.7334) of the two practice sessions on Friday, but teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay captured the fastest lap (1:10.6346) and that may bode well for Kanaan especially. Racing is a game of milliseconds, especially at a track like Long Beach where it\u2019s tough to find any advantage or opportunity to pass an opponent. Starting at the front of the grid for Sunday\u2019s race is all-important, and Kanaan feels good about his chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just Friday but it\u2019s definitely a good start for us,\u201d he said Friday after climbing out of the bright green car, which only adds to Kanaan\u2019s larger-than-life personality.<\/p>\n

\"\"A notorious practical joker and extremely tenacious competitor, Kanaan is known for pushing his cars and his body to the absolute limit. The only problem is that bad luck seems to follow him around, like when a strategic mistake cost him a 2007 Indy 500 victory or when his car caught fire in consecutive races last season.<\/p>\n

None of that is on his mind here in Long Beach, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been very successful, very competitive here and I feel good about my chances,\u201d Kanaan says.<\/p>\n

With that, the 5-foot-6 driver \u2013 clad in a green jumpsuit \u2013 climbed onto his emerald-colored scooter and sped off in search of good luck this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andretti Autosports driver Tony Kanaan looks to add to his legacy – and break a streak of bad luck – with success at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":16865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}