The 107th race of the Indianapolis 500 will be both special and memorable for Tony Kanan. Not only will this be his 22nd 500, but it will also be the last race of his career.
At 48, Kanaan never gave much thought to when the checkered flag would fly over his career. Since its beginnings with the NTT IndyCar Series in 1998, the love of sport and the thrill of competition have always driven him for a quarter of a century.
“I love what I do,” said Kanaan M&F. “I never said I wanted to race to be rich or famous. I love it, I love what I do, and if I can still do it, why not? Do I have something to prove? No There’s nothing left to prove Retirement will be a big adjustment because I’m not the same guy I was 30 years ago I have four kids now I’m married and I don’t know not how to live my life differently.
Being able to leave any professional sport on your terms while being celebrated is a privilege that only a few can enjoy. Ahead of his final Indy 500 this Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, TK shared his thoughts on how he’s been able to compete at such a high level for as long as he has. He also shared what he looks forward to in retirement and his advice to the next generation.
Tony Kanaan continues to train to dominate on the track
I have always tried to learn as much as possible. Obviously not everything I’ve done has been beneficial, but I try not to follow trends. I try to follow people with the same dynamism as me. It’s about knowing your body and knowing what works for you because your diet won’t work for me and vice versa. I can’t stress a thing, but one thing that’s always been on my mind is to wake up and do something.
You need to be more specific if you are a professional athlete because you need to work your neck and shoulders. I discovered that if you have good advice and a good trainer, you don’t have to do the conventional things. For example, before we had the neck machines, I would watch TV lying on my side and hold my neck for 30 minutes on each side. It’s a workout because you hold your neck and try to resist gravity. That was years ago but still today, if I’m in a hotel for four to five days and don’t have the tools, I’ll do it in a hotel bed. Over the years what I’ve discovered is to do what feels good to you because whatever is forced, you’re not going to want to do it and eventually you’ll give up. I also worked a lot on my mind. My workout routine is more about keeping my mind at peace more than anything. I try to educate myself on what I need and what my goals are in terms of being able to drive the race car. then personal enjoyment – like I want to look good – and then finding workouts that I enjoy doing. I wake up at 4:30 a.m. every day and I go to work out. Am I enjoying this? No. But if I don’t start it, it’s a day that I will have lost in terms of training.
Always think of something different, someone to beat. I have my teammates. [Alexander] Rossi trains with me every day at the gym, and you want someone who is going to help you raise your bar and help you raise his. It’s not a competition but we all need challenges. If it gets too easy, it becomes human nature to get lazy and not do something with the effort required to make gains. My training routine has always been about my riding. I was focusing on who I had to beat or a race I had to win. I’m also very proud to finish a race and I see some of my competitors completely exhausted when I’m ready to do another one. It is a reward and a benefit. I am 48 years old and I decided to call my last this year, but could I run another 10 years? Five for sure. You don’t see people in professional sports lasting into their late 40s. It’s not common.
INJURIES ARE PART OF SPORT
I had a few injuries. I had three concussions from major accidents. I broke my arm twice. I broke it for the first time in Detroit in 2000. I hit a manhole on the track. I hit him, the car took off and I hit the wall. The wheel entered and broke my left arm in two places. My elbow hit my ribs and I broke seven, got a concussion and was knocked out. I woke up in the hospital a day later and had two plates and 17 screws in my arm. The first thing I asked the Dr was when can I drive again. He said in about four months. I was back in four weeks.
In 2003, I broke my wrist on the same arm. It was three weeks before the Indy 500. I broke my wrist on a Saturday, flew to Indy on Sunday and had surgery on Monday. I missed one of the practice runs and finished third with a carbon brace. That’s not bragging and I don’t recommend people do that, but that’s how I’m wired. We have the best doctors in IndyCar and they wouldn’t let me race if it wasn’t safe. I remember at the time it was very noisy because everyone who wanted to come back from an injury kept annoying my doctors. You attribute the ability to come back faster to mindset, great doctors around you, taking risks, and having such a healthy body that recovery is much faster.
If you are fit, you recover faster. If you’re strong, you won’t get hurt as much in a race car. Focus on the big things, not just strength – flexibility and smarts in your training. If you don’t feel well or have any pain that you think will compromise something, don’t do it. If I feel a pull or something in my leg, I’m not going to run but I’m going to swim and see if it gets better. Trying to prevent injuries outside the car is one thing. Once inside, we can’t prevent something from happening.
BE LIKELY TO EVOLVE
Just like with training, you have to constantly change because you will get tired from the same thing. If you do biceps every day, it will end up doing you nothing. I like to feel the pain and have changed my routine each trimester. Cycling and running remain the same, but I will be changing the way I do my exercises, my intervals, and my short and long runs. I constantly have to adapt because I need that motivation. If it’s the same thing over and over, my mind won’t let me do it with the same intensity. I’m always looking for new things, I challenge my coaches on what we could do differently. I try to challenge every new theory or workout, new drinks and training methods.
KEEP YOURSELF IN CONTROL
My dad died on a Thursday night and I had to race that weekend. I ended up winning that race. It was a big problem for me. Thank goodness I never suffered from anxiety or depression. I think that’s why I’m able to constantly question myself. Like normal people, I went through a tough divorce a long time ago. I still had to run, and I did a few of those runs without being able to sleep the night before because you’re arguing, worrying about other life issues. I have been happily married for 15 years.
Although people see us as very strong and successful, we have the same difficulties as everyone else. The difference is I can’t wake up and tell my boss that I don’t think I can race today because I’m not well. It’s something that’s been good and bad for me because I’ve lived my life prioritizing my career all the time. Now that I have a big family and a wife, it’s something that she puts me in check a bit. You can become selfish even if you don’t want to. Everything revolves around you and everything is for you because you are the center of attention. We’re all human, so you can get used to it and it becomes your normalcy. The biggest difficulty has always been to control myself if I am too selfish, which I am. I’m extremely selfish because I’m a product of my career and I’ve worked really hard to try to balance that. I go to therapy twice a week for this.
PREPARE FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER
Retiring from IndyCar is one thing. I am not fully retired. I always race in two different series – one in Brazil and one here. The IndyCar chapter of my life is coming to an end. I’m extremely excited about this new project of working with Arrow McLaren to be part of the team to help my teammates – I think I can bring a lot with my experience on a technical level. I’m still racing and enjoying things outside of the car. I no longer have the pressure and it’s a new pressure. I never thought I was out of driving the car, which was naïve of me because it always ends up coming to an end.
Since joining this team, I’ve met so many great people. I’ve been there a long time, and I’ve known a lot of people. Arrow McLaren is still a relatively new team. We just clicked with the people, the way we work, the mentality and we have so much in common. It’s no different than a relationship. You need to have things in common to be able to date someone or have a friendship. I look forward to being part of the team. They make me feel part of the team outside of the car. At this point, my focus is on giving them a 500 win. That’s my last goal as an IndyCar driver. After that, it is enough to contribute to the success of the team.
NEVER STOP PURSUING, EVEN AFTER THE RACE IS ENDED
I have a 15 year old boy who has a lot of questions now. When I lost my father, I was eight years old and I got it into my head that I wanted to be a racing driver. No matter how hard it was, that’s what I was going to do. My biggest piece of advice is when you wake up, ask yourself how badly you really want it. The easiest way is to give up or not to start. Anyone can do it. You already have the answer No if you don’t ask or go after, the no is already there. Choose yes.
Follow Tony Kanaan on Instagram @tkanaan
