Kanaan collects $2 mn from record Indy win

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AFP) –

Brazil’s Tony Kanaan poses at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 27, 2013. He collected $2.35 million for winning the 97th Indianapolis 500 with the fastest winning speed in race history.

Brazil’s Tony Kanaan collected $2.35 million from a total purse of more than $12 million for winning the 97th Indianapolis 500 with the fastest winning speed in race history.

Kanaan completed 200 laps Sunday around the 2.5-mile (4km) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in 2 hrs 40 mins 3.4181 secs at 187.433 mph (301.644 km/h), breaking the old mark of 185.981 mph set by Dutchman Arie Luyendyk in 1990.

A stretch of 130 laps in a row without a caution flag pushed Kanaan and his top rivals to keep racing at a pace unmatched in Indy history.

“It was a fast race, a very fast race,” Kanaan said on Monday. “You can tell how tight the field was because in the past you always had the mix of drivers that would make mistakes and nobody did.

“I don’t recall doing more than one or two stops under green here ever in the past 11 years. Here we did almost all of them. I’m like, ‘Can we get a break so I can drink my water a little?’ So it was a fast race.”

It took Kanaan 12 career starts to finally win at Indy, matching the record for the longest drought for an eventual Indy 500 winner established when Sam Hanks won in 1957 in his 12th attempt.

Colombian Carlos Munoz, who finished second after becoming the youngest front-row starter in Indy history when he began from the middle, was named the race’s Rookie of the Year and won $964,205.

Defending IndyCar series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay took $583,005 for finishing third while US compatriot Marco Andretti took $469,755 for taking fourth. No American has won the Indy 500 since 2006.

Britain’s fifth-place Justin Wilson, the top-finishing Honda-powered driver in a race dominated by Chevrolet engines, took home $337,805 while Brazil’s Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy winner, earned $313,755 in sixth position.

US pole sitter Ed Carpenter, who finished 10th, received $405,955, which included $100,000 for taking the inside front row starting spot in qualifying.