IZOD IndyCar Series: Iowa Corn Indy 250

Topics:  Iowa Corn Indy 250

Tony Kanaan
June 23, 2013

NEWTON, IOWA

THE MODERATOR: This is Tony's fourth consecutive podium finish Iowa. Talk about that great race. There was tons of battles going on for position all day.
TONY KANAAN: I wonder why people think, why do I love Iowa so much. Yeah, it was an interesting race. I think in the beginning, we had some temperature issue on the car, so on the first stop, we took a little bit of extra time. Some debris got into the side, so we kind of had to take one piece off the oil heater that we had it on to cool the engine, so we lost five positions there. And track position was so important today, that it cost us the entire race to go back to where we were.
So on the last yellow, when I asked Jimmy where we were, we were only like 11th and there was only like three cars behind me on the same lap. I said: Why don't we pit, put new tires on, we are going to have an advantage. I think I can make it up, because a lot of people, because of the nature of the track and the downforce that we have, better tires were always going to help. And then we went off sequence and that's what helped us at the end of the race.
I'm excited. It's funny, every time we have the Sunoco car this year, I finish on the podium, so going to have convince them to have a full car every race. But it was a great race for us.

Q. That battle you had with Graham Rahal looked pretty good there, it was pretty close. How fierce and intense was that?
TONY KANAAN: It was intense. Obviously he has not had a great year, so he was fighting for the podium position. And he fought a little bit too hard in my opinion, but I take it, I think this is racing. It's not‑‑ he gave me room; at times he didn't, but we managed to pass him. So it was a hard race. He's a good driver. He made his car extremely wide. So it was a good battle.

Q. Traffic is always tough here but talk about the traffic here in this race today.
TONY KANAAN: I mean, it's the shortest track we go. We are going to have traffic every lap. People are going to get mad. People are going to get‑‑ you know, say, oh, you should let me by, you should do this. But you know what, at the end of the race, we are racing. And even the lap cars are racing some lap cars, as well.
So it was tough. There were people there that were hanging in there for their life so they could only run one lane and sometimes it happened to be your lane, as well. So it is what it is.
And it's such a short track; if you start letting people by every lap, after ten laps, you're going to have to let the same people by again. It's tough. But I think it's part of what makes this race here very exciting. So it is what it is.
I'm not a big fan of complaining about traffic, because, you know, it is what it is.

Q. Do you particularly like‑‑ you must like going into turn three and just taking whoever is on the outside and just making him go further outside; you really dive down low, much lower than most people. Is that one of your favorite parts of the corner?
TONY KANAAN: It is, and then funny that you picked on that, because I think my best move on the race was when I passed Marco there, you know.
I think because of the nature of the cars today, a lot of people don't go down low like that because you actually have a tendency to understeer. My car was actually pretty good there. And once you dive in that early, the barking kind of help you in the middle of the corner and a lot of people didn't realize that, and I think in the race, that helped me a lot.
I made a lot of passes, because a lot of the guys were choosing to run high going into that corner, and you know, running low, I had the grip and I had the clear air. So it was definitely a good place to be.
THE MODERATOR: Just looking ahead to our next race, is obviously Pocono, you're in the Sunoco car, it's a new track and you're going for the Triple Crown. Any thoughts about that as we head there?
TONY KANAAN: I haven't been there. I'm going to test there on Tuesday.
So I'm excited. I've always heard good things about Pocono. Obviously when I drove for Michael Andretti, it was a track that they had a lot of success, it was close to their house and I even heard that Michael had a helicopter crash on the way there once. So I've heard about the track a lot.
I'm excited. Obviously I'm the only one that have a chance to win the Triple Crown, so the pressure is on us, but I'm excited. I can't wait to go there on Tuesday and check the track out and see how it looks like.