Antoine Rizkallah Kanaan Filho, more commonly known as
Tony Kanaan, (born December 31, 1974) is a Brazilian racing driver. He has won the
2013 Indianapolis 500 and the
2004 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. That season, he completed 3,305 laps, making him the first IndyCar Series driver to complete every possible lap in a season. He also led 889 laps in 13 separate races to establish an IndyCar Series record. He is also the only driver to lead the
Indianapolis 500 in each of his first seven starts, and won his first race on his 12th attempt. This ties him with
Sam Hanks for the most attempts to win their first Indianapolis 500. Kanaan has a total of 15 career race wins in the Verizon IndyCar Series. He also has one victory in the
Champ Car World Series with his win at the
U.S. 500 at
Michigan International Speedway. Kanaan has also competed in both the
24 Hours of Daytona and the
12 Hours of Sebring. Kanaan is friends with former IndyCar Series driver
Dario Franchitti and previously with
Dan Wheldon, who was killed while in the
2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a race in which Kanaan was leading from the pole. On the
Borg-Warner Trophy (the trophy that features the likeness of each
Indianapolis 500 winner), the names of those three drivers all appear on consecutive order as follows:
2010 (Franchitti),
2011 (Wheldon),
2012 (Franchitti), and
2013 (Kanaan). After Franchitti suffered career-ending injuries in a crash with
Takuma Sato at the
2013 Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Race #2 at
Reliant Park, Kanaan replaced him in the #10
Target-sponsored
Dallara DW12-
Ilmor-
Chevrolet Indy V6 for
Target Chip Ganassi Racing beginning in the
2014 season after being originally contracted to drive the #8
NTT Data/TNT Energy Drink-sponsored
Dallara DW12-
Ilmor-
Chevrolet Indy V6 for
NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing. Kanaan would begin to drive for
NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing in the #10
NTT Data-sponsored
Dallara DW12-
Ilmor-
Chevrolet Indy V6 after
Target decided to sponsor
Scott Dixon.