Tony Kanaan says Grand-Am race not a ticket to IndyCar ride with Ganassi Racing: Indinapolis 500 winner making first trip back to Brickyard to drive Daytona Prototype sports car

Indinapolis 500 winner making first trip back to Brickyard to drive Daytona Prototype sports car

By: Autoweek Staff on July 23, 2013

LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC - Tony Kanaan says that he's still interested in driving for KV Racing Technology in the Izod IndyCar Series in 2014.

Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan insisted Tuesday there's no link between the Grand-Am Series ride he has for this weekend's sports car race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the open IndyCar Series seat at Ganassi Racing.

Kanaan, who will be an IndyCar Series free agent at season's end, said he was asked to co-drive Chip Ganassi's No. 02 BMW with Joey Hand in Friday's Brickyard Grand Prix because Ryan Briscoe broke his wrist in the July 13 IndyCar race in Toronto.

Briscoe's sponsor from the Ganassi-entered Indianapolis 500 car (NTT DATA) is sponsoring the Daytona Prototype.

?This deal is a Grand-Am deal,? Kanaan said. ?Unfortunately, Briscoe got hurt.?

Kanaan has said his first priority for 2014 is to see if a deal with KV Racing Technology can be signed. Kanaan has helped build the team co-owned by Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser into a contender; the No. 11 car is sixth in the point standings after 13 of 19 races.

Ganassi is only fielding three cars this season after Graham Rahal left for his father's team. Panther Racing also has a seat to fill for 2014, although Briscoe is the expected choice.

Kanaan, Hand and the rest of the sports car participants will practice for the first time at IMS on Thursday (9 a.m. to 4:50 p.m.). The three-hour Grand-Am race is Friday at 5:30 p.m.

This will be Kanaan's first visit to Indy since winning the 500 in May. It also will be his first Daytona Prototype race -- he shared a GT car in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona -- after experiencing the American Le Mans Series three times.

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Source: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130723/INDYCAR/130729942?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=

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