LIKE SO MANY Hoosiers, Tony Kanaan has had the Indy 500 ingrained in his DNA from an early age. Born in Salvador, Brazil, Kanaan became a 500 fanatic in his youth when he and his father watched the race annually, and what grew into a love for life on four wheels quickly evolved into a goal set between the two.
“I grew up watching it since I was 6, 7 years old with my dad, and that was a tradition we had in Brazil,” Kanaan says. “When I started racing at 8, it was my goal to be an IndyCar driver and win the Indy 500. I lost my dad when I was 13 to cancer and he made me promise him before he passed that I would win the 500 for him someday, so it was special. Then and since then, it’s been a part of my life, my dream, and my promise to my dad.”
Kanaan’s first race came in 2002, when he finished 28th. In that race and every one that followed, there was a feeling of gratitude.
“The first time I raced, it was just a feeling of, ‘Wow, I made it. Now let’s see if I’m good enough to win the race too.’ It took me 12 years to win it, but the feeling was always grateful whenever I came here and was able to participate,” he says.
The following year, Kanaan placed first in the Purex Dial Indy 200 in Phoenix, marking his first victory in the IndyCar series. He then went on to collect 15 more wins, as well as 73 finishes in the top three.
But of all of those victories, his first-place finish in the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2013 stands above the rest.
“It was just a relief, to be honest. It was one of those things that’s hard to express, the feeling when you describe having a dream and you promise someone that’s no longer around,” Kanaan says. “The Monday after that, the feeling I had was anything could happen to my life now because I checked that box.”
Memories of that long-awaited day aren’t the only thing that Kanaan took with him, however.
Kanaan, a superstitious competitor, regarded each race day with the same attention to detail. His routines included never donning anything new in the car, always putting his left shoe on first, and entering the car from the left side.
And while older pairs of gloves and shoes were a must, following his 2013 victory in the Indy 500, something else became a race-day staple.
Underwear.
“I didn’t wear this in my final race because they were pretty beat up, but I had a lucky pair of underwear—which was the pair I wore when I won the Indy 500 in 2013. Obviously, I washed them, but I wore them for years after until 2020,” Kanaan says.
Now in year three of his retirement, Kanaan recalls his time behind the wheel at IMS as “the most nervous day of my life every year” but notes that—retired or not—the nerves and pride of being a part of the 500 stay the same.
“The feelings never go away,” he says. “It’s just a different dynamic between driving and not driving.”
For the last seven years, Kanaan and his wife, Lauren, a Hoosier native, have resided in Indiana while he serves as the team principal of Arrow McLaren. Even though he’s retired, he has one last chance to get behind the wheel this Sunday at the IMS when operating as Kyle Larson’s replacement driver. Larson looks to complete “The Double” by racing in the Indy 500 on Sunday before flying to Charlotte, North Carolina, on the same day to compete in the Coca-Cola 600.
Kanaan will operate as Larson’s sub should the events be delayed by weather, but when it came time for him to complete his refresher test required by the IndyCar Series, he was reminded of just how sweet his life behind the wheel has been.
“Today was so special. When I thought this place could not provide me any more excitement as it has over the years, and then today … two years since I’ve driven an Indy Car … I went up and ripped it 218 MPH average and I enjoyed it a lot. I said on the radio as I came in, ‘You know, I had a pretty cool job,'” Kanaan says.
When pressed on if he would break out his old lucky underwear, Kanaan was all in.
“It’s not functional, but it doesn’t matter,” he says. “You don’t need underwear in a race car anyway.”
