Kanaan overcomes crash to qualify for Indy 500

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Tony Kanaan spent all weekend cramming to get into the Indianapolis 500.

He barely made it.

Two crashes in less than 24 hours sent Kanaan’s team scrambling to get the No. 11 car back together, and the 2004 IndyCar Series champ aced the biggest test of his career with a four-lap qualifying average of 224.072 mph to get his car on the starting grid with 30 minutes left in qualifications.

All he had to do was wait to see if the speed would hold up, which it did.

“You live, you learn, and we crashed. Today was just a nightmare,” he said after getting the 32nd starting spot in the 33-car field. “Apart from that, the conditions were the hottest we’ve ever seen. The track was really slick, I saw everybody complaining. So it’s tough to keep it cool and say, ‘Yeah, we’re just going to go out at 5.’ It’s the last day, you’re not in the field yet, crashed two cars and just stay cool.”

Fortunately for Michael Andretti, Kanaan did.

It’s the first time the Brazilian will start outside the first two rows in nine Indy starts, but after a dreadful weekend for Andretti Autosport, they’ll take it.

From Kanaan’s crashes to Danica Patrick’s contentious comments, the Andretti Curse was back in full force at Indy.

The team struggles began Saturday when Marco Andretti described his qualifying run as “pathetic.” The 23-year-old still wound up with the best starting position, 16th, on his dad’s five-car team.

Kanaan and Patrick had worse weekends.

Patrick climbed out of her car after Saturday’s sub-par run and blamed a poor setup for her poor performance — comments that drew boos when broadcast over the public address system.