Tony Kanaan

Kanaan debuted in karting at age eight and won multiple São Paulo championships from 1988 to 1990, as well as the Brazilian junior karting championship in 1988. He won the inaugural race at Ayrton Senna's kartodrome in Tatuí. Moving to formula cars in 1991, he finished sixth in the Brazilian Formula Ford 1600. In 1993 he competed in the Formula Opel Euroseries, finishing tenth, and also finished third in the EFDA Nations Cup with teammate Luiz Garcia Jr. He won the 1994 Formula Europa Boxer title with five wins. In 1995 he raced in the Italian Formula Three Championship for Tatuus in a Dallara 395-Opel, securing one win and nine podiums to rank fifth.

Kanaan moved to North America in 1996, racing Indy Lights for Tasman Motorsports and finishing runner-up with two wins and three second-place finishes. He won the Indy Lights title in 1997 with two wins and seven podiums.

Kanaan began competing in CART in 1998 for Tasman Motorsports, finishing ninth in points with two podiums and winning the Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year award. In 1999 he signed with Forsythe, won the pole at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and the U.S. 500, finishing the season eleventh. He moved to Mo Nunn Racing for 2000, where his best results were three eighth-place finishes; he finished nineteenth in points. In 2001 he recorded his first podium since Michigan 1999 and took a pole at Chicago, finishing ninth in points. In his final CART season in 2002 he took two poles — at Bayfront Park and California Speedway — and recorded two third-place finishes at Vancouver and Montreal before switching to the IRL.

Kanaan made a one-off IRL entry at the 2002 Indianapolis 500 with Mo Nunn Racing, qualifying fifth as the highest-starting rookie. While leading, he crashed on lap ninety after both Jimmy Vasser and Bruno Junqueira slowed on track with mechanical problems, leaving oil undetected by officials. He finished twenty-eighth.

For 2003, Kanaan joined Andretti Green Racing full-time. He won the Purex Dial Indy 200 after leading 79 laps, which moved him to first in the points. At the Indianapolis 500 he finished third behind Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves, ending the season fourth in points.

In 2004, driving the No. 11 7-Eleven Dallara IR03-Ilmor-Honda for Andretti Green Racing, Kanaan won at Phoenix, Texas Motor Speedway, and Nashville Superspeedway. He completed every lap of the season — all 3,305 — and scored 618 points to win the championship.

Kanaan's most prolific single season came in 2007, when he won five races including the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, the ABC Supply Company A. J. Foyt 225, the Firestone Indy 400, the Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway, and the Detroit Indy Grand Prix. Despite those five wins he finished third in points behind Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon. That year he also received the Scott Brayton Award at the Indianapolis 500. He had the same best season win total but missed the championship, and was widely referred to — along with team owner Michael Andretti — as one of the best drivers never to win the Indianapolis 500.

In October 2010, Kanaan was released from his contract with Andretti after 7-Eleven announced it would not return as his primary sponsor. In eight seasons with Andretti he won fourteen races and one championship. He then moved to KV Racing Technology — co-owned by his former rival Jimmy Vasser — driving the No. 82 GEICO/Lotus Dallara. He suffered a spectacular crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2011 that sent him airborne down the back straight into a portable toilet.

At the 2013 Indianapolis 500, Kanaan qualified twelfth with KV Racing Technology, then battled Ed Carpenter, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Marco Andretti for the lead. On lap 197, following a restart caused by a crash between Graham Rahal and Carlos Munoz, Kanaan passed Hunter-Reay for the lead. The race finished under caution — for the fourth consecutive year — with Kanaan winning at an average speed of 187.433 mph, breaking the record set by Arie Luyendyk in 1990. The race set a new record with 68 lead changes, breaking the previous mark of 34. Kanaan tied Sam Hanks as the most experienced driver to win the race, in their twelfth start. After the win Kanaan said: "I was known for not winning and now I am known for winning. The last lap was the longest lap of my life."

In 2014, Kanaan drove for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 10, finishing seventh in points — his best since 2011. He remained with Ganassi through 2017. From 2018 to 2019 he drove for A. J. Foyt Racing with best finishes no higher than fifteenth. He announced 2020 would be his final season and ran a five-race schedule. In 2021 he returned to Chip Ganassi Racing on a partial oval schedule in the No. 48 Dallara Honda.

Kanaan competed in the SCCA United States Road Racing Championship in 1998 at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, driving a Ford Mustang Cobra for Tom Gloy Racing. In the American Le Mans Series in 2007, he shared an Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX-01a with Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti at Sebring, winning the LMP2 class and finishing second overall. He made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in 2017 in the No. 68 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Ford GT. In the 2007 Formula Nippon season he made a special entry at Suzuka, finishing sixth. He competed in Stock Car Brasil in 2012 and raced full-time in the 2021 season in a Toyota Corolla for Full Time Bassani.

Kanaan is a member of the "brat pack," a group of CART drivers who were close friends off the track, together with Dario Franchitti, Max Papis, and the late Greg Moore. He is a triathlete who completed the Ironman World Championships in 2011 with a time of 12:52:40.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.