Kanaan comes up short again

INDIANAPOLIS -- Tony Kanaan was feeling lucky Sunday. Unfortunately for the Brazilian, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was relentless -- again.

Despite using a brilliant move to go from fifth to first with 15 laps remaining in the Indianapolis 500 and still leading with six laps to go, Kanaan watched helplessly as Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon zipped past him on the final restart.

He never got a chance to catch the leaders again and wound up third. For Kanaan, it was yet another bitter ending in his frustrating Indy career. In 10 previous races at the Brickyard, the crowd favorite had started in the first two rows eight times and produced four top-five finishes.

This year, Kanaan came to Indy with the distinction of leading more laps than any active non-winner.

"I didn't think he could have held off [Franchitti and Dixon]," said Jimmy Vasser, co-owner of KV Racing Technology. "I just thought he had a better car coming from behind."

Sunday's drivers fared better drafting in the new Indy cars than pulling out front. The result was a record 35 lead changes and a surprise: Honda's first victory of the season.

Kanaan, driving a Chevy, showed everyone what his car could do in traffic when he made a gutsy pass on the second-to-last restart of the day. With the leaders lined up single file, Kanaan dropped back in the pack, accelerated quickly and slingshotted his way past the leaders, going from fifth to first in a single move with 15 laps left.

Suddenly, the unluckiest driver in this year's field looked like he just might change his long years of misfortune.

"He almost pulled it off," said Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indy winner and now Takuma Sato's team owner. "You know 10 laps from the finish, are the officials going to black flag you? That's what he was counting on. If you have a normal restart, there's no way in hell you can go from sixth to first."

Officially, IndyCar's scoring sheet listed Kanaan in fifth at the time of the move, and despite an in-race protest from Rahal, series officials opted not to penalize Kanaan.

Over the next several laps, Kanaan and Franchitti, former teammates with Michael Andretti's team, traded leads until a crash knocked out Marco Andretti on lap 188. When the race restarted on lap 195, Kanaan and almost everyone else in Gasoline Alley knew what was coming.

"It was sort of like me in 2006," Michael Andretti said. "I think Tony knew deep down it would be hard to hold them off."

It was impossible.

"[Last year's winner Dan Wheldon, who died in a 2011 crash] is probably laughing his butt off right now [with] his three best friends finishing one, two, three. What a great way to finish this race," Kanaan said. "Obviously, so close again. I'm happy. I lost many times here, but to lose it this way, battling until the end, it's not a loss."