Kanaan sneaks up on Indy pole win

He may not always get the credit he deserves, but Kanaan is happy to be racing.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Tony Kanaan hardly causes a stir when he walks around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in street clothes.
It's not hard to recognize the compact -- 5-foot-5, 145-pound -- Brazilian with the prominent nose and nearly shaved head, but Kanaan goes about his business generally unnoticed until he puts on his Andretti Green Racing uniform.
Even last Sunday, the day when the reigning Indy Racing League champion won the pole for the May 29 Indianapolis 500, he didn't cause the biggest excitement.
That honor was reserved for Danica Patrick, the only woman entered at Indy. A bobble on the first of her four laps of qualifying on the 21/2-mile Indy oval probably cost her the pole, but her great recovery placed her fourth on the grid, the best qualifying effort for a female in Indy's 89-year history.
Female driver
"Danica is the story," Kanaan said, shrugging. "She could have done something no other woman had ever done -- win the pole at Indy. I won the pole, but I was just another story."
If you think that bothers him, you don't know Kanaan.
"I like to sneak up on people -- on the track and in public," said Kanaan, flashing the gleaming smile that has become his trademark, along with his consistency on the racetrack. "That's more fun."
Racing wasn't always fun for Kanaan, who began his career in go-carts at the age of 6 and had almost immediate success.
More than a game
But his father, Kanaan's biggest fan and mentor, died of cancer when he was 13. The family, which had been living well, suddenly found itself struggling just to make ends meet.
"My father made me promise him I would continue racing, because he said he knew I had the ability to make it," Kanaan said. "It was sometimes very hard to keep on working for that dream. But he gave me great strength, and I wanted to do this for my father and for me."
That meant sometimes living hand-to-mouth, sleeping on the floor of a garage while racing Formula 3 in Italy in 1995 and sleeping on his engineer's couch when he first arrived in the United States to race in Indy Lights in 1996.
"Tony was never depressed or angry," said two-time Indy 500 winner and fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who roomed with Kanaan early in their careers and followed a similar difficult path to success. "When things were bad, he was always sure that things would be better tomorrow -- and not just for him.
"Nobody deserves the success more than Tony."
'Mr. Consistency'
Kanaan's biggest break came in 2003 when he was hired by the new team put together by former driving star Michael Andretti, Kim Green and Kevin Savoree. The team began competing that year in the IRL and Kanaan was an immediate hit, getting his first IndyCar Series victory, racing among the leaders all year and finishing fourth in the points.
Last year was the big breakthrough as Kanaan's No. 7 Honda-powered car completed 3,305 laps -- every lap run during the 16-race season. He had 15 top-five finishes and won three races on the way to beating teammate Dan Wheldon for the series title.
Wheldon has won three of four races this year, but "Mr. Consistency" Kanaan has a runner-up finish, two thirds and a sixth and is second in the points heading into the Indy race.
Now it's become pretty hard for Kanaan, who won the Indy pole with a four-lap average of 227.566 mph, to sneak up on anybody on the racetrack.
One goal left
"Tony has done a great job since day one," Andretti said. "Sometimes, he's not given the credit that he deserves as a driver, but this is a big step. I think winning the pole here is something that's very difficult to do. I've never been able to do it in my career.
"Now we've got one big goal left, and that's to win the race."
For Kanaan, winning the Indy 500 would be the ultimate success.
"Growing up in Brazil, we knew about Formula One and we knew about Indy," Kanaan said. "I always expected to race in Formula One but, once I came to America, the goal was always to win the Indy 500. It's the biggest race.
"You know, since I've been with Andretti Green, I've won the first race, the first championship, the first Indy pole, so why not the first Indy 500? That would be fun."