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Kanaan Gives Firestone Its 100th IndyCar Series Victory Patience paid off for Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan, as he watched some of the race's top contenders fall away throughout the race. Kanaan stayed consistent and calm in the final laps, ...
Edited: Mar 27, 2008, 5:32 AM
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Kanaan Gives Firestone Its 100th IndyCar Series Victory
Patience paid off for Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan, as he watched some of the race's top contenders fall away throughout the race. Kanaan stayed consistent and calm in the final laps, bringing home his second victory of the season and giving Firestone its milestone 100th victory in IndyCar Series competition.
Kanaan, who started the race in third position and took the lead on lap 53 of the league's first ever permanent road course event, was a very fitting winner of Firestone's milestone victory. A former Dayton Indy Lights champion and the reigning IndyCar Series champion, Kanaan has enjoyed a long and loyal relationship with Firestone.
"Firestone has been a big part of my career," said Kanaan. "I've been getting help from them since I was in the 'little leagues', and it feels great to give them their 100th win. When you're a part of something that big, with someone who supports you for so many years you want to give something back to them. I think that was the best way for me -- they gave me great tires and we gave them their 100th win."
Firestone's first IRL win came in the league's inaugural race when Buzz Calkins took the checkered flag at Walt Disney World Speedway on January 27, 1996.
Quote from Al Speyer, Executive Director, Firestone Racing: "This was such a great milestone for us and we're very happy to see Tony share this one with us. He's one of the many drivers in this league who've been competing on our tires for a very long time, some of them throughout their career. To see them develop into the drivers they've become today is one of the most rewarding parts of our company being involved in racing. We're so thrilled to be able to contribute in our own way to the development of not only the drivers, but the league as well. Certainly congratulations should go out to Tony and the entire Andretti Green organization, but also to the IRL for a successful run at our first permanent road-course. It's always a new challenge for us to adapt to a new venue, but once again our Firestone Firehawks ran flawlessly all weekend."
Firestone Performance Award winner: Dan Wheldon of Andretti Green Racing led mile 117 today to claim the Firestone Performance Award, which commemorates the fact Firestone has competed in every IRL IndyCar Series event since the league's 1996 inception. Today's race was the 117th in league history. Wheldon will be presented a $10,000 check during pre-race festivities for the Chicagoland Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on September 11.
Race temperatures ranged from 120 to 134 degrees track and 82 to 92 degrees ambient (F).
Race temperatures ranged from 49 to 57 degrees track and 28 to 33 degrees ambient (C).
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