TONY KANAAN on WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: “I really like Laguna Seca. It’s a track that I had a lot of success at in the past—I won the Indy Lights championship there in ’97 and had my second podium in INDYCAR in ’98 so. The track is very challenging, it has a lot of hills and a lot of blind corners—the ‘Corkscrew’ is extremely famous for that.”
Tony Kanaan Rolls Fast: Kanaan competed in the 2019 Rollfast Gran Fondo World Tour race in Indiana this past Sunday. The 100-mile route around greater Carmel, a northern suburb of Indianapolis, is billed as the fastest Gran Fondo on the 16-event World Tour schedule. A mechanical failure around mile 38 prevented Tony’s bike from shifting gears, but he pulled through and still managed to finish 17th out of 230 entrants and 5th of 29 entrants in the 40/44 age group. He completed the #centuryride in 3 hours, 46 minutes for an average speed of 26.7 mph on his Trek Madone bike, and earned a Grand Fondo Sub4 (under four hours) Belt Buckle.
Kanaan will be making his 377th IndyCar start this weekend, which is second only to Mario Andretti’s 407 starts: “It’s pretty remarkable to be honest, I don’t stop to think about it,” Kanaan said of this career stat. “When you start racing, you don’t think about those things but when I look up to one of my racing heroes which is my boss and I pass him on total starts (A.J. Foyt had 369 starts), I don’t even know what to say. I never thought I would top any of his achievements. He raced for so long in so many other things, I think obviously he has done quite a bit more than I did but in IndyCar to be part of a select group like that and have my name around them is pretty cool.”
MATHEUS LEIST on WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: “I’m looking forward to the last round of the season—Laguna Seca. It’s a place that I’ve never been to but I’ll confess that I’ve played a lot of iRacing there and it seems like a pretty cool track. Also Tony really likes that track, he won there in Indy lights and had good runs in INDYCAR so it’s good to have a teammate with a lot of experience at that track. I can lean on him, chat about it and get some tips from him.
Last Race: At Portland Raceway, Matheus Leist posted his second top-10 finish of the season. Starting 21st, Leist capitalized on a timely yellow and pitted in the late stages for new Firestones. The fresh rubber helped him vault from tenth to eighth in the closing laps. Teammate Tony Kanaan, who started 19th, finished 12th as the strategy didn’t work as well as planned.
Past Performance at Laguna Seca Raceway: In five races (1998-2002), Tony Kanaan’s best start was 2nd in 1999 and his best finish was third in 1998. In Indy Lights, he won the pole both years (’96 and 97) and won the race in ’96. His 2nd place finish in ’97 garnered the Indy Lights title. Matheus Leist will make his first start at Laguna this year. In eight starts here, the Foyt team’s best start is 11th with Mike Groff who also posted the team’s best finish of eighth, both in 1992.
Texas Time! Texas-born watch company, Jack Mason, announced the launch of their new limited-edition watch to celebrate the legendary race car driver, A.J. Foyt, earlier this week. The A.J. Foyt Limited Edition Chronograph is the second watch in Jack Mason’s Texas Icons Series, and it introduces a new platform of Jack Mason racing watches, the Camber. Available for a limited time while supplies last. For more information, visit jackmasonbrand.com. The Jack Mason logo is featured on the nose of the No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet this weekend.
ABC Supply is in its 15th season as primary sponsor of A.J. Foyt’s IndyCar team, making it the longest running team sponsor in the NTT IndyCar Series. The company was founded in 1982 by Ken and Diane Hendricks with just three stores. The company now has over 700 stores and topped $10.5 billion in sales in 2018. ABC Supply began sponsoring the AJ Foyt Racing team with the 2005 Indianapolis 500. The company has leveraged its involvement by entertaining well over 110,000 associates and customers over the past 14 racing seasons. This weekend the company will entertain over 350 guests.
ABC Supply local account Dynasty Roofing Inc., located in Pleasant Hill, Calif., will be featured on the engine cover of the No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet. Guests will receive the VIP treatment this weekend along with a Meet and Greet with Tony Kanaan.
The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey will be televised live on NBC on Sunday, Sept. 22, starting at 2:30 p.m. ET. Qualifying will be broadcast Saturday on NBC Sports Network from 4:30 – 6:00 PM ET. All of the practices will be available on NBC’s subscription-based service, INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
