CART: Kanaan hit with fueling problems at Toronto

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

July 15, 2001

Tony Kanaan and the #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard saw his bid for what appeared to be a certain podium finish ruined by fueling problems in today's Molson Indy Toronto. Kanaan, who started fourth and finished 10th, worked his way into the lead with just 30 laps to go after the second and final round of scheduled pit stops, under yellow. But he did not take on enough fuel on that stop and had to pit again for a splash of fuel on the very next lap, still under yellow. That dropped him back to 11th place with 29 laps to go. And it turned out he still did not get enough fuel with that second stop as he ran out on the last lap of the race and stopped on course, losing two positions. Kanaan recorded the second-fastest lap of the race, a 59.255-second effort (an average of 106.624 mph) around the 1.721-mile temporary street course at Toronto's Exhibition Place. Helio Castroneves had the fastest lap at 59.028 seconds (107.034 mph). Kanaan remained in 13th place in the driver points standings with 37.

Teammate Alex Zanardi had his best drive of the season, finishing fourth in the #66 Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard after starting 24th.

Michael Andretti won for the first time this season, followed across the finish line by Alex Tagliani and Adrian Fernandez.

The next stop on the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series is next weekend (July 20-22) for the Michigan 500, Round 11 of 21, at Michigan Speedway.

TONY KANAAN

"I honestly don't know if we have a hardware problem or what with our fuel filler, but this is the most disappointed I've been in a very long time. I definitely had a car that could have won the race. When I saw I was P1 after that second pit stop, I was thinking 'this is finally the day we've been waiting for.' And then my heart just stopped beating when they called me in on the very next lap. What a disappointment. The guys worked so hard to give me a great car all weekend. I never take anything for granted. But after we were fastest in morning warmup, I was very confident that we could win this race. But all I got was three points (for 10th place) and a ride back to the pits from my teammate (Zanardi) when my car ran out of gas. We have to fix that problem because we have a lot of pit stops to make in our 500-miler next week."

Text provided by Laz Denes

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