#17 Kanaan Indy 500 May 8 Practice

Tony Kanaan

#17 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force
86th Indianapolis 500 - Practice Notes/Quotes - Wednesday, May 8, 2002
Indianapolis Motor Speedway - 2.5-Mile Oval
Round 5 of 15 on the 2002 Indy Racing League

Tony Kanaan took advantage of an opportunity to drive Hollywood/Mo Nunn
Racing teammate Felipe Giaffone's back-up car in practice for the 86th
Indianapolis 500 and cracked the 226-mph barrier for the first time this
week.  Kanaan, who earlier in today's rain-delayed session reached 224.428
mph in 27 laps of practice in his #17 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet
G-Force, needed just six laps in Giaffone's #21T Hollywood car to reach
226.891 mph.  It was the ninth-fastest lap overall among 37 cars that took
to the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval today.

Giaffone, after not running at all on Tuesday while the team prepared his
back-up car, recorded a fast lap of 226.998 mph during his 43 laps in the
#21T Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force.  It was the eighth-fastest
lap of the day, which started some 3-1/2 hours late due to heavy morning
rain showers.

Scott Sharp was fastest today at 228.350 mph, followed by Laurent Redon at
228.046 mph, and Helio Castroneves at 228.036 mph.  Practice resumes
Thursday with Pole Day qualifying on tap for Saturday.

TONY KANAAN

"Thanks to Felipe for making my day ... actually, for making my week.  I'm
definitely buying him dinner tonight!  Actually, we've been struggling a
little bit with my car, so I just wanted to give Felipe's back-up car a try
to see what we need to do.  Within six laps, I got up to within a tenth of a
mile an hour of his best lap.  So that proves we have some work to do on my
car.  That's great to finally find the setup we were looking for all week.
Now we have a lot of momentum for tomorrow and we can really work toward
getting my Hollywood car where we want it to be for qualifying."