Tony Kanaan heading to NASCAR with Joe Gibbs Racing?

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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Tony Kanaan is the 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, past champion and a fan favorite on the IZOD IndyCar circuit. He's searching for sponsorship to try and stay with the series he's been with for a decade and loves. But what if another team from another discipline offered him a paying ride where all he had to bring was his helmet, talent and personality?

RACER has learned that Joe Gibbs Racing has made the popular Brazilian an offer to run Nationwide in 2014, with a chance to move to Sprint Cup for one of NASCAR's best operations.

Read the rest here.
 
More earnings.. I wouldn't blame Tony for coming but doubt he'd have much success.
 
Interesting. He's accomplished pretty much all you can do in IndyCar and with the guaranteed sponsorship it's probably a no-brainer. I don't think he'll make it up to Cup though.
 
@jeff_gluck
Joe Gibbs Racing spokesman re: Tony Kanaan report says they met, but no offer and nothing formal has even been discussed.
 
sounds like kanaan' s just usin this as leverage.......ta get indy team / sponsor ta commit ---2014 ?
 
this is dumb stay in freaking indy car, and BTW I don't see sponsorship being tossed around this this makes it sound it is. look at all the drivers being shuffeled because of lack of sponsorship.
 
Why shouldn't he come over? I mean he's a great indy car driver and he would be with a great team, shouldn't that mean he'll do very great?? I mean that's what I've heard here lately that if some of the open wheel drivers that came over was on a good team they would have did great so TK come on over man you'll win races!
 
Blaze88 said:
Why shouldn't he come over? I mean he's a great indy car driver and he would be with a great team, shouldn't that mean he'll do very great?? I mean that's what I've heard here lately that if some of the open wheel drivers that came over was on a good team they would have did great so TK come on over man you'll win races!
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Probably because he's 38 years old.
 
Lazyking said:
Probably because he's 38 years old.
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Well it's still a good team, and isn't that what matters when making the move from open wheel to Nascar? I mean hell he wouldn't be the first Tony to make the move and join JGR, the last one did great at it also.
 
No, being able to learn car control, driving a loose race car is most important. if it was great equipment then Danica and Hornish wouldn't have had any problems
 
driving an indy car is way easier than a stock car, its really not even comparable. tony stewart is the only one I know of that has came from indy car and really made it. dario franchiti didn't do anything. JPM has only won on road courses. yeah just put a guy in a good car thats all you need, yeah right.
 
Lazyking said:
No, being able to learn car control, driving a loose race car is most important. if it was great equipment then Danica and Hornish wouldn't have had any problems
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But when I bought up before how Danica is doing better then most of the Open Wheel people to come over, everyone said it's cause they had bad equipment and acted as if they had good equipment they would had did good, so now it's about car control and not the equipment?
 
Blaze88 said:
But when I bought up before how Danica is doing better then most of the Open Wheel people to come over, everyone said it's cause they had bad equipment and acted as if they had good equipment they would had did good, so now it's about car control and not the equipment?
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Because this forum has more hypocrites on it than a US political party.

I'd personally love to see TK in the sport. You really cannot compare TK to Danica or JPM. He's on a whole 'nother level. Atleast he would get his feet wet in the nationwide series first and see how it goes from there. If he's a quick learner and puts up good numbers I say go for it. Hell, Dale Jr. dominated the NW series, but cant seem to amount to anything in Cup anymore even with top equipment... so prior stock car experience really doesnt matter as long as you are a solid racer.
 
Blaze88 said:
But when I bought up before how Danica is doing better then most of the Open Wheel people to come over, everyone said it's cause they had bad equipment and acted as if they had good equipment they would had did good, so now it's about car control and not the equipment?
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Not every open wheel guy had great equipment.. no one is gonna do anything in **** equipment.. but at the same time, that doesn't mean that Tony K is gonna do great in great equipment if he's to come over. Regardless of the car, you still need the skill for stock car racing.
 
As a racing fan, it's hard not to like Tony, but going to NASCAR doesn't seem like the right move. He drove in a couple of races in the Brasil Stock Car series last year, which is more like Aussie V8 Supercars. It's hard to blame him for wanting to get out of Indycar if he can't be on a top team, but if it was just about the passion to race, you'd think he'd go to WEC (European sports cars) or ALMS. But we all know it has to be $omething el$e, right? If it does happen, the best I can see is he becomes like Max Papis, a good road course driver coach for new talent.

How the hell is driving an Indycar easier than driving a stock car? Fitting into the Good Ol' Boys club is the hard part.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Because this forum has more hypocrites on it than a US political party.

I'd personally love to see TK in the sport. You really cannot compare TK to Danica or JPM. He's on a whole 'nother level. Atleast he would get his feet wet in the nationwide series first and see how it goes from there. If he's a quick learner and puts up good numbers I say go for it. Hell, Dale Jr. dominated the NW series, but cant seem to amount to anything in Cup anymore even with top equipment... so prior stock car experience really doesnt matter as long as you are a solid racer.
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Exactly, they honestly just want to find any reason to complain about stuff, like honestly TK could do great, might not but according to them he should be able to since Danica should be able to with her top equipment, but they will make excuses for why it's different and not just admit they like to piss people off.

Lazyking said:
Not every open wheel guy had great equipment.. no one is gonna do anything in **** equipment.. but at the same time, that doesn't mean that Tony K is gonna do great in great equipment if he's to come over. Regardless of the car, you still need the skill for stock car racing.
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So if he comes over, and finishes badly every week, does this make Danica better then him if she finishes better then him most of the time?
 
Blaze88 said:
Exactly, they honestly just want to find any reason to complain about stuff, like honestly TK could do great, might not but according to them he should be able to since Danica should be able to with her top equipment, but they will make excuses for why it's different and not just admit they like to piss people off.



So if he comes over, and finishes badly every week, does this make Danica better then him if she finishes better then him most of the time?
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If he runs somehow a full season at JGR in cup, finishes 30th in points then yes, Danica is a better Nascar driver.
 
Lazyking said:
no one is gonna do anything in **** equipment..
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Ricky Craven won the Southern 500. Brad Keselowski won at 'dega in a Junior Motorsports car. Kurt Busch did much better than expected in the 51 last year, he's also kicking ass and taking names in RCR's backup car every weekend. Mark Martin is subbing for Stewart and cant drive the thing to the front, and THAT is nearly top equipment. Point is, it's about 70% driver and 30% equipment. Put TK in a good race car and watch him go to work on those young guns
 
Cons: - 38 y/o without stock car experience.
- Probably another fast track disaster if a big sponsor is involved. It is a catch 22- They want their driver in the most prestigious races almost immediately. It is literally a crash course with little ARCA and K&N type development time. Just throw them to the wolves because the money is there.

Pros: I could get use to looking at Misses Kannan during the invocations and national anthems.
 
Kannan stunk at Eldora, all three times. I don't see him making the transfer to Nascar, he has nothing I see going for him. Now days you have to have a good buddy deep pockets sponsor.
 
Lazyking said:
More earnings.. I wouldn't blame Tony for coming but doubt he'd have much success.
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It has more to do with the fact that he can't find a ride in IndyCar without bringing his own sponsor.
 
I don't know anything about Indy car racing drivers or their fans , but both sound like they look down their snoots at backwoods Nascar racing. Seems to me , they all find it ' not too distasteful ' when they need work . I'd like to hear Robin Miller give an opinion on the line up of Indy drivers at the Nascar window.
 
hidesert cowboy said:
driving an indy car is way easier than a stock car, its really not even comparable.
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I agree that it's different for sure. Easier is probably more dependent on what kind of racing the driver developed with.
 
ted@economy said:
I don't know anything about Indy car racing drivers or their fans , but both sound like they look down their snoots at backwoods Nascar racing.
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And you say that in a thread full of NASCAR fans ****ting on open-wheel racing?
 
Lazyking said:
open wheel aint gonna get much respect on a forum with 90% NASCAR fans
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There is a reason for some of that, look at the open wheelers overall track record in nascar., not so good.
 
hidesert cowboy said:
driving an indy car is way easier than a stock car, its really not even comparable. tony stewart is the only one I know of that has came from indy car and really made it. dario franchiti didn't do anything. JPM has only won on road courses. yeah just put a guy in a good car thats all you need, yeah right.
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That's what I was thinking. It's Franchitti all over again. I don't wish Tony ill, and Dario didn't have a solid sponsorship, but I don't know about adapting this late in his career. Maybe he can squeeze in an ARCA race late in that season and get a better idea of what he might be in for.
 
Lazyking said:
I know that but the two are very different.. that doesnt really mean indy car is really easier
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Exactly. Just as a more extreme example, hardly anyone would say driving a F1 car is easier than a Cup car.
 
Can you imagine how much easier stock car racing would become if the driver could adjust the car from the driver's seat?
 
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