Tony Kanaan hoping for second Iowa victory as season gets on right track

After starting the year with a new team on the wrong foot, Tony Kanaan looks to have things going his direction heading into Iowa Speedway. Everybody was asking after the first couple races this season what was wrong with Chip Ganassi Racing as none of their cars were performing well. Though as the Verizon IndyCar Series season enters the second half, the drivers seem to have started to get it figured it out as along with Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe have been producing some solid results.

When it comes to the ovals, though, Kanaan has perhaps set himself up even stronger than the others as he led the most laps last weekend at Pocono Raceway (78) before having to pit with four laps to go out of the lead for fuel. As a result, Kanaan finished 11th.

It seems that race could sum up Kanaan’s year on the ovals to date as he looked fast at Indianapolis in May, but finished 26th with mechanical issues. He posted some of the quickest laps at Texas Motor Speedway a couple weeks ago before finishing sixth.

It hasn’t all been bad, though, as Kanaan did score a podium finish at Belle Isle with a third. Though when the 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner announced that he was heading to CGR in 2014, many people expected better than what has happened to date.

Perhaps this weekend will be the kick in the butt that will start the positive momentum for not only Kanaan, but for CGR as a whole. Kanaan is a past winner at Iowa Speedway, scoring the victory in 2010 driving for Andretti Autosport. CGR also knows how to win at Iowa Speedway, having scored two prior wins with Dan Wheldon in 2008 and Dario Franchitti in 2009. A victory this weekend could be a huge team moral boost and back-up the fast speed that they’ve shown.

Beyond that, it’d give the team a lot of momentum heading into the Honda Indy Toronto next weekend, which has been very successful for CGR in the past as they won the 2011 event with Franchitti, before Dixon swept both races in dominating style as part of the double-header last weekend.