CART: Kanaan Gets first Career Pole at Long Beach

18 April 1999

LONG BEACH, Calif Tony Kanaan of the McDonald's Championship Racing Team logged the first pole position of his FedEx Championship Series career Saturday when he paced the field during qualifying for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (4 p.m. ET, live, ABC-TV).

Kanaan averaged 107.454 miles per hour (1 minute, 1.109 seconds) for his fastest lap of the reconfigured, 1.824-mile temporary street circuit and earned the right to lead 27 starters to the green flag for Sunday's third round of the FedEx Championship Series. The pole position, which earns Kanaan a FedEx Championship Series point, improves on his previous career-best start of third at Rio de Janeiro and Gateway last year.

Starting alongside Kanaan on the outside pole is Dario Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard), who qualified second at 107.412 mph (1:01.133). His qualifying performance is a season best, improving on seventh in the season opener at Homestead. The effort also keeps intact a streak of six consecutive front-row starts on temporary street circuits, dating to last year.

Bryan Herta (Shell Ford Reynard) qualified third at 107.154 mph (1:01.280). He makes a season-best start, improving on eighth at Japan last week.

Rounding out the top five qualifiers was Max Papis (Miller Lite Ford Reynard), fourth at 107.044 mph (1:01.343) and rookie Juan Montoya (Target Honda Reynard) fifth at 106.966 mph (1:01.388). The top 15 qualifiers were covered by less than one second.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

TONY KANAAN, McDonald's Championship Racing Team Honda Reynard: "I knew I had a good car, but I broke the gearbox this morning and had to start the backup car. So I jumped in the "T' [secondary] car and was half a second faster than I was in my primary car, so we waited until about 10 minutes before qualifying to make the decision on which car to qualify and I said, "Let's take the chance.' Sometimes, you just have to take the risk. I knew we had a good car and I knew that my job was to get the most I could out of it."

DARIO FRANCHITTI, KOOL Honda Reynard: "My first problem this morning was that I managed to put my car into kit form on the second fast lap of the day. I brushed the wall and damaged the steering column and I had to go to the "T' [secondary] car for qualifying. But no excuses, we just weren't fast enough today. Good for Tony, it's nice to see him up here [in the post-qualifying media conference]. I would have preferred to be in his seat, but it's going to be an interesting race tomorrow."

BRYAN HERTA, Shell Ford Reynard: "The car was really good. On our first set of tires, I got a good lap in, and came in and made some small changes just to see how the car would feel. On my second set of tires, the car had a big understeer. For some reason, we just couldn't get the balance right. But the track is rubbered now, the consistency is good and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow."

WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY

The length of Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach has been changed from the originally scheduled 80 to 85 laps (155.04 miles)

By starting on the outside pole, Dario Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard) maintains a streak of six consecutive front-row qualifying performances on temporary street circuits, dating to the middle of the 1998 season. The skein includes poles at Toronto, Vancouver and Australia and outside poles at Cleveland and Houston.

Bryan Herta (Shell Ford Reynard), who will start third, has qualified third or better for five of his last seven starts on FedEx Championship Series road or street circuits, dating to last year. Included are starts of third at Mid-Ohio, second at Road America and Vancouver and a pole at Laguna Seca.

Pole-sitter Tony Kanaan (McDonald's Championship Racing Honda Reynard) will be looking to become only the third driver in the 16-year history of FedEx Championship Series competition at Long Beach to win from the pole, and the first since 1990. Other wins from the pole at Long Beach have been scored by Mario Andretti (1984 and '85) and Al Unser Jr. (1989 and '90)

Kanaan's pole position was his first since winning the pole for the 1997 PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship event at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif.

Kanaan's pole was the second of the season for Firestone, as well as the second of the year for Honda.

CART announced a partnership agreement with Parke-Davis and Pfizer Saturday, which makes LIPITOR (atorvastatin calcium) an Official Sponsor of the FedEx Championship Series. Parke-Davis and Pfizer, co-marketers of LIPITOR, a treatment for high cholesterol, have joined forces with CART to promote cardiovascular health among CART's fan base and its sponsors through use of the LIPITOR Mobile Screening Unit. The Mobile Screening Unit, a 53-foot trailer, will provide free cholesterol screenings and professional analysis for CART spectators at 13 domestic FedEx Championship Series events throughout the season. "The LIPITOR Mobile Screening Unit has already educated more than 1,100 CART spectators about their cholesterol levels at the CART opening race and will screen thousands more by the end of the racing season," said Andrew Craig, CART President and Chief Executive Officer. "The partnership between LIPITOR and CART may help our spectators lead healthier lives by knowing and understanding their cholesterol levels and their risk of heart disease. Part of CART's mission is to pioneer and expand new categories for sponsorship and that's what we have done in developing this relationship with LIPITOR."

For the second consecutive year, the final 10 minutes of Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will air commercial free thanks to Toyota, the race's title sponsor. Toyota aired the final 10 minutes of last year's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach uninterrupted, to great response from viewers.

WHAT'S ON TAP

CART 2Day airs 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN2. The live broadcast of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach airs 4 p.m. ET Sunday on ABC-TV.

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