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Teammates Andretti, Kanaan Mend Fences

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By TONY FABRIZIO

afabrizio@tampatrib.com

Published: April 2, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - Ten months after Marco Andretti may have cost Tony Kanaan a shot at winning the Indianapolis 500, the teammates are on good terms and promising to work together in this weekend's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

"They're fine," said Marco's dad, Michael Andretti, whose Andretti Green Racing operation also fields cars for Danica Patrick and Hideki Mutoh. "They hang out in Florida and go go-karting and stuff together. Marco just bought one of Tony's cars."

Andretti has, in fact, bought four cars from Kanaan and possesses quite a fleet of personal vehicles. He has a Porsche Cayenne, a Mercedes C63, Mercedes CLS 63, a Ferrari F430, a BMW M3, a BMW M6 and an Acura - and most of them are thoroughly customized.

But the two intense racers weren't talking aftermarket wheels after last year's Indy 500.

Kanaan, 34, had been leading just past the halfway point when he got caught in lapped traffic, Eventual winner Scott Dixon passed him cleanly, but when young Andretti also went by, Kanaan got caught high on the track in loose rubber and spun into the path of Sarah Fisher.

Andretti, 22, apologized over his car radio, and Kanaan, after being checked at the track care center, said his teammate had better be sorry, "because it was a very stupid move."

The incident "is in the past now, something you put behind you," Kanaan said Wednesday before an appearance at a Macy's store in Clearwater. He said all the AGR teammates are committed to having better give and take this year.

Andretti said he respects Kanaan "on and off the track" and that "he's one of the greatest natural talents I've ever seen." He, too, vowed more team cooperation.

Kanaan, the 2004 champion from Brazil, is a perennial contender at both St. Pete and Indianapolis but has not been a winner at either. The only driver to finish in the top three each year at St. Pete, he enters this weekend as one of the favorites.

"Four times we've been here, and we've been on the podium every time - it can't be that we're just lucky," he said. "So it's a race course we really like and we have a good car for."

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at 813-259-7994.

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