Tony Kanaan was forced to settle for third at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night but admitted the whole race was a lot of fun, especially in the closing laps when he battled hard with Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe and Simon Pagenaud for the victory.
The veteran Brazilian was on top form throughout the race at the 1.5 mile oval, and the Chip Ganassi Racing driver ended just 0.0903 seconds behind race winner Rahal, with Kanaan feeling the dicing at the end was great both on track and for the fans watching.
Kanaan admitted that he had to remember how to drive an IndyCar in a pack, with a number of drivers being close to each other throughout the race under the lights.
“Oh, that was so much fun,” admitted Kanaan. “I’ve got to thank the fans that came back. I didn’t think there was going to be a lot of people but whoever didn’t come missed a hell of a race.
“That was some old school Texas right there. It was a good night. We started way in the back, but we made up positions right away. I think with INDYCAR not changing the rules and the earlier race being a day race, we had a ton of downforce that we had to run during tonight’s race, so the cars felt a lot closer as you could see.
“I had to dig into my hard drive and remember pack racing again. It worked out pretty well. Big props to the guys in front who gave each other room, that’s why we finished the way we did. It’s always a pleasure to race like that.
“When you have good cars going with each other, it’s quicker. I gave them hell! [I wanted to be] on the inside. But if Graham (Rahal) wasn’t pushing Hinch (James Hinchcliffe), I was going to have it.
“So, I was hoping for Graham to get greedy and go three wide. That was going to slow everybody down, but that didn’t happen. He was smart enough.”
