Kanaan wins Indy 500
Tony Kanaan wins the Indianapolis 500, in an outcome that raises the merits of green-white-checkered flag finishes.
INDIANAPOLIS - Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan is conflicted over green-white-checkered flag finishes.
Kanaan won his first Indy 500 under caution Sunday in an anticlimactic ending to a thrilling race. There were a record 68 lead changes, with the last one coming when Kanaan slid around Ryan Hunter-Reay on a restart with three laps remaining.
Moments later, Dario Franchitti's crash brought out the caution and the race ended with Kanaan following the pace car around Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the final two laps of the 500-mile race.
Although NASCAR makes three attempts to finish a race under green even if means going beyond the scheduled distance, the IndyCar Series does not. NASCAR fans and even some commentators immediately took to Twitter to decry the muted ending.
Kanaan said yesterday green-white-checkered finishes should be considered but acknowledged it would be tough to do in the Indianapolis 500.
"I'm all about the tradition in this place. That was never done here," Kanaan said. "I'm not saying that because I won under yellow, because I lost plenty of them under yellow, as well. Especially in a place like this, I think you want to see a finish under green. At the end of the day it's a race, it's the rules. People have different opinions."
IndyCar took the unusual step of red-flagging last year's season-finale at Fontana to clean up an accident and allow the race to finish under green. Although it made for a better ending to the race, the move was unprecedented and purist race fans panned the decision.
The red-flag at Fontana helped Hunter-Reay clinch his first series championship, but like Kanaan he didn't know if a green-white-checkered at Indy was appropriate. After Kanaan got around him on the restart, Hunter-Reay slipped to third before the caution and didn't get a chance to race for the win.
"This is Indy, there's a certain way things are done," Hunter-Reay said. "If tradition is tradition, you don't materialize results. We don't try to produce results out of green-white-checkereds. It can be a bit gimmicky."
Kanaan's win was the first for Chevrolet since 2002.