Despite not having had the best of time during the month of May finding speed for qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony Kanaan is happy to have pace when it mattered as he took his Chip Ganassi Racing car to second in the speed charts during Monday practice.
Kanaan, a former winner of the Indianapolis 500 back in 2013, will start down on the outside of row six on Sunday’s race for Chip Ganassi Racing having at no time been a threat to the fast nine shoot-out, but his speed of 226.393s during Monday’s session when setting up the car for race day was key propelled him into second place behind Josef Newgarden of Ed Carpenter Racing.
“I’m glad we were finally able to get the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet up to speed for practice today,” said Kanaan after the session. “I’ve felt really good about my race car since the early sessions and it showed how strong the car is in race setup today on track.
“We made a lot of progress overnight and it helped put our qualifying run behind us. We’re 100% focused on the race now and just figuring out the best strategy to get back up front.”