Tony Kanaan, the 2004 IZOD IndyCar Series
champion and nine-time Indianapolis 500 starter, will
compete in the
Prelude to the Dream June 8 at the
legendary Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
The race will be presented live to the entire nation on
HBO Pay-Per-View® with proceeds from the telecast
supporting four of the nation’s top children’s
hospitals:
Kanaan, who has 15 career Indy car victories, competed
in last year’s
Prelude to the Dream, where he was the
first foreign-born driver to compete in the Prelude
since Colombian-born Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007.
“I’m thrilled to be back in the Prelude to the Dream,”
said Kanaan, who hails from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
“It’s an amazing lineup of drivers and we’re all
competing for such a good cause. It’s very rare for me
to get a chance to drive something other than my
GEICO/KV Racing Technology/Lotus and to not have to race
with points in mind. I’m not saying I’m going to do
anything crazy, because the goal is to help my team win,
but I’m definitely going to have some fun.”
PAGE 2
Kanaan is one of the most popular drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series. He has four top-10
finishes in the Indianapolis 500, including a second-
place result in 2004, and he holds the record for most
consecutive races led, having led at least one lap in
seven consecutive Indianapolis 500s between 2002 and
2008. Overall, his seven races at the point rank him
10th all-time in the category, just six races behind
all-time leader A.J. Foyt, who led in 13 of his 35
starts at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kanaan’s 214
total laps led at Indianapolis rank him 28th out of the
198 drivers who have led a lap in the Greatest Spectacle
in Racing.
Kanaan was the proverbial fish out of water in last
year’s Prelude, as the 2,300-pound dirt Late Model stock
car he drove for the first time was a far different
machine from the 1,600-pound, open-wheel Dallara he
campaigns in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Nonetheless,
Kanaan proved adept at turning right to go left around
Eldora’s half-mile, clay oval.
“That was the only time I drove that kind of car, and
the next time will be the night of the race,” Kanaan
said. “By far, it was the craziest thing I had ever
done. I had a lot of fun. I can’t describe it. I
definitely put myself in a very difficult spot, not
testing and never being on dirt in my life. In 35 years,
I’d never driven a car like that or on a surface like
that.
“But, I enjoyed it a lot, and now that I’ve done it,
I’ve heard that there are other IZOD IndyCar drivers
that want to do it. I’m glad that Tony (Stewart) and everybody at Eldora
showed me the preference of racing in the Prelude again.
I can’t wait.”
The learning curve was steep for Kanaan, but with a
little help from other Prelude participants, notably
event founder Tony Stewart, Kanaan was slinging his dirt
Late Model around Eldora’s high banks with no
fear.
“The biggest thing I learned is that we think our
racetrack changes a lot? This is completely another
world. I can drive with the brakes and the throttle at
the same time, which I can’t do in my (Indy) car,”
Kanaan said. “Tony (Stewart) was very helpful, and Jeff
Gordon came over and we had some interaction because he
had gone to Brazil for our go-kart race a couple of
years ago. Kyle Busch also came over and tried to help
me. The thing is, their experience in those cars is
tremendous, but those three guys definitely came around
and gave me as many tips as they could.”
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That driver-to-driver interaction is one of many reasons
why Kanaan is making a return to the Prelude.
“A lot of the drivers that go there I’ve watched for a
long time, so racing against those guys and Tony is
awesome. The way the people welcomed me was awesome,”
Kanaan said. “You know, people try to make this big
rivalry between NASCAR and IndyCar, but it doesn’t exist
at all. They are two completely different types of
series. The majority of fans at this event are NASCAR
fans, and when I went out to get introduced, I felt very
right at home. They gave me a very warm welcome. That’s
something I enjoyed a lot.”
So, what does Kanaan want to get out of this year’s
Prelude?
“To have fun. That’s all of my expectations. We can get
very competitive, but the biggest and most important
part is to have fun and actually have the fans have fun
and raise a lot of money for charity, because that’s why
we’re there.”
The live, commercial-free broadcast will begin at 8 p.m.
EDT (5 p.m. PDT) with an immediate replay. HBO Pay-Per-
View’s racing telecast has a suggested retail price of
$24.95 and is available to more than 92 million pay-
per-view homes. Ordering information and up-to-the
minute racing information is available at either
www.PreludeToTheDream.org www.PreludeToTheDream.org or www.HBO.com.
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The Prelude to the Dream is a team event, and Kanaan
will join Stewart on Team Dallas. There is still an
individual race winner, but there is also a race within
the race, with the field broken up into four teams, each
representing a children’s hospital:
- Team Levine: Jimmie Johnson, Denny
Hamlin, Bill Elliott, David Reutimann, Austin Dillon,
Ray Evernham and Cruz Pedregon.
- Team Atlanta: Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards,
Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Ken Schrader, David Gilliland
and Ron Capps.
- Team St. Louis: Busch, Kasey Kahne, Bobby
Labonte, Justin Allgaier, Kenny Wallace, Ron Hornaday
and Ricky Carmichael.
- Team Dallas: Stewart, Kanaan, Matt
Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Marcos Ambrose, Aric Almirola
and Dave Blaney.
PAGE 5
Each hospital will receive a donation, with the payout
breakdown as follows:
- Winning team receives 30 percent of net proceeds
raised from the pay-per-view telecast.
- Second-place team receives 25 percent of net
proceeds raised from the pay-per-view telecast.
- Third- and fourth-place teams each receive 20
percent of net proceeds raised from the pay-per-view
telecast.
The lowest team score wins, and only the top-five
drivers from each team will be scored. For example, if
Team Levine has finishes of first, fourth, seventh, 11th
and 18th, respectively, from its top-five drivers, its
score will be 41. In the event of a tie, the sixth
driver will be scored.
The four charities – Levine Children’s Hospital,
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, St. Louis Children’s
Hospital and Children’s Medical Center Dallas – all
cater to the medical needs of children.
Drivers from all types of disciplines, some with lots of
dirt track experience and others with hardly any, will
participate in qualifying, heat races and a 30-lap
feature, all of which will be televised live on HBO
Pay-Per-View.
With no points and no pressure, the Prelude to the Dream
is a throwback race, allowing drivers to step back in
time and compete for the reasons they all went racing in
the first place – pride and a trophy. And they’ll do it
on the same surface that racing legends and past
Indianapolis 500 regulars Foyt and Mario Andretti
competed on throughout the last 57 years.
For those who want to see the Prelude to the Dream in
person, tickets are available online at www.EldoraSpeedway.com or by calling
the track office (937) 338-3815. Act fast – the race has
sold out in previous years.