Tony Kanaan, NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing
The cast: Race engineer – Todd Malloy. Race strategist – Barry Wanser. Chief mechanic – Kevin O’Donnell.
Twitter: @TonyKanaan, @CGRindycar
The car: No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet
The driver: Turns 41 on Dec. 31 … From Brazil and resides in Miami. … Completed his second season with Chip Ganassi Racing Teams. … Won 2004 Verizon IndyCar Series championship and 2013 Indianapolis 500 among career highlights. … A triathlete, he recently competed in the Ironman 70.3 Miami event with teammate Scott Dixon. Kanaan is scheduled to participate Nov. 15 in the Gran Fondo Miami bike ride that benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Season finish: Kanaan placed seventh in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings for the second consecutive year. He’s finished in the top 10 in nine of the past 10 seasons.
Video: Tony Kanaan reviews his season
Season stats: Kanaan started the season with three consecutive top-six finishes, including third place at St. Petersburg – among his three podiums. Second place on the Texas Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway ovals were season highs, which were directly followed by sixth-place finishes at Toronto and Milwaukee. … Contact at Pocono Raceway (19th place) intersected top fives at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Sonoma Raceway in final three races. … Was running at the finish in 13 of the 16 races and completed 1,989 of the 2,232 total laps. … Led eight races for 213 laps, bringing his career total to 3,959. … Had average finish of 9.4 on the five street courses; 7.0 on the five road courses and 12.6 on the six ovals.
Year over year: 2015 best qualifying of second at Iowa Speedway (7.6 average), best finish of second at Texas Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway (9.9 average). 2014 best qualifying of second at St. Petersburg, Iowa Speedway and Milwaukee Mile (9.2 average), best finish of first at Auto Club Speedway in season finale (9.3 average).
The gist: Kanaan has competed in 310 Indy car races (eighth on career list); 2016 will mark his 20th Indy car season. … He is the all-time leader in consecutive starts with 249 (the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13, 2016, is the next race). … Kanaan is tied for seventh on the all-time Indy car list with 124 top-five finishes. … He co-drove to the overall victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.
The chart (below): Looking at how Kanaan finished relative to his qualifying position:
