{"id":302754,"date":"2023-06-01T00:30:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T00:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=302754"},"modified":"2023-06-01T00:59:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T00:59:30","slug":"we-cried-on-the-grid-emotional-ending-for-racing-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=302754","title":{"rendered":"'We cried on the grid': Emotional ending for racing legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Kanaan couldn't hold back tears as the reality set in. With lap 200 of this year's Indianapolis 500<\/a> in the books, his racing career was complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It ended the way it began, racing wheel-to-wheel with countryman Helio Castroneves.<\/p>\n

The pair were kart racing rivals as children in Brazil's Belo Horizonte and teammates when they began racing in the United States.<\/p>\n

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In 1996, Kanaan and Castroneves raced together under the Tasman Motorsports banner in the then-known Indy Lights, one rung below IndyCar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Kanaan won the title in 1997 while Castroneves finished runner-up. A year later, they both graduated to the big time, albeit with different teams.<\/p>\n

Although they've both been on the IndyCar grid every season in the 24 years since, they never reunited as teammates again.<\/p>\n

"That's what's ironic," said Kanaan, now 48.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We started it in '87 and the last lap of the race we're actually battling \u2013 my last race in IndyCar \u2013 and we're battling like it was for the lead.<\/p>\n

"But I wouldn't have it any different, neither to him.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

"The last restart. We went side-by-side like twice. A lot of memories came to my mind, and I even said how ironic it is that we started it together and I get to battle him on the last lap of my last race.<\/p>\n

"It's pretty neat. It's a pretty cool story. He's a great friend, my reference, a guy that I love and hate a lot throughout my career, and like he just told me \u2013 I was coming up here and he just said, 'Who am I going to look on the timesheet when I come into the pits now?'\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We always said that it didn't matter if I was — 22nd and he was 23rd, my day was okay. And vice versa. Yeah, it was pretty cool."<\/p>\n

\"Helio<\/p>\n

Kanaan's retirement was somewhat overdue. He had planned for 2020 to be his final full season, but the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to that.<\/p>\n

Saying farewell at the Indianapolis 500 in front of an empty grandstand wasn't an option either.<\/p>\n

Finally, three years after initially announcing his impending departure, Kanaan made it official<\/a>. The 107th running of the Indianapolis was to be his last.<\/p>\n

\"Helio<\/p>\n

It was an emotional rollercoaster for the Brazilian-born fan favourite, who held back tears as the crowd roared during driver introductions.<\/p>\n

Having begun his career alongside Castroneves, it was rather fitting then that they battled in the closing laps of this year's race.<\/p>\n

"I told the guys before we started, it was either going to be a win or anything apart from the win we were going to celebrate regardless," Kanaan explained.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndyCar\/status\/1663274012309606401<\/a><\/p>\n

"I think I would do a disgrace to almost 400,000 people that were there that made me feel the way they did to say I'm sad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I had a laugh. Helio and I battling for 15th and 16th on the last lap like we're going for the lead. It was like, 'who's playing pranks with us?'<\/p>\n

"We both went side-by-side on the backstretch after the chequer and we saluted with each other, and I just told him actually I dropped a tear because of that, and he said, 'I did, too'.<\/p>\n

"It was a good day for me, man. What can I say? We cried on the grid."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Kanaan couldn't hold back tears as the reality set in. With lap 200 of this year's Indianapolis 500 in the books, his racing career […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":302756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302761,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302754\/revisions\/302761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/302756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}