Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Kanaan maintains lofty goals after record-breaking season

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Tony Kanaan realizes he has his work cut out for him if he wants to improve upon his 2004 Indy Racing League season.

En route to winning his first championship in a major open-wheel series, Kanaan won three races, posted 15 consecutive top-five finishes and completed every lap of every race.

So what does he do for an encore?

"The expectations are high," Kanaan said. "We're not expecting to match what we did (last year); I think it happens once in every so many years, finishing every race, every lap, leading most laps, 15 top fives.

"We set the standards pretty high last year so we're working twice as hard to be able to at least do as good as we did, which I think is going to be very difficult for us this year with all the records we broke last year. Defending the championship is going to be definitely the goal."

If Kanaan can't repeat, he said his goal is to help one of his three Andretti Green Racing teammates -- Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon or Bryan Herta -- keep the trophy in house.

"I think we're (all) championship contenders, so we want to keep the championship in the team again. I think the whole Andretti Green team, we are able to win another one -- not just with me but with all my other teammates.

"If I can do anything to help my teammates, I will and I don't hide that from anybody. Whatever I have to do to make my team to win this championship -- if I'm not a contender -- I will do it."

With the addition of two road-course races and a street race to the 2005 IRL schedule, Kanaan said he is hoping his background as a road racer will give him a slight edge when the series heads to the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Watkins Glen and Infineon Raceway.

"Obviously, I'm a lot more confident than some of the guys that didn't race road courses at all, so I do think it's a little bit of an advantage," Kanaan said. "But good drivers are good drivers all the time. They might take a little time to adapt but I came from road courses and I had to adapt to the oval -- it took me a little time but here I am, I won a championship in a series that's just ovals.

"I think we'll have an advantage in the beginning and then after that, it'll be pretty much as competitive as the oval racing."

The Indy Racing League opens its 10th season March 6 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

NEW LOOK: ABC Sports' and ESPN's telecasts of the IRL will have a slightly different look this season with Todd Harris replacing Paul Page as the play-by-play announcer on both networks. Harris worked as a pit reporter on ABC's IRL telecasts last season and has worked as a sideline reporter on the network's college football broadcasts.

Gil de Ferran and Scott Goodyear will join Harris in the booth as analysts. Jack Arute will work the pits on ABC races only while Vince Welch will do ESPN races exclusively. Dr. Jerry Punch and Jamie Little will cover the pits for both ABC and ESPN telecasts.

JOHNNIE WALKER TO F1: Diageo, which entered NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racing this year with its Crown Royal brand, will sponsor the McLaren Formula One team beginning in August. A European Union ban on tobacco sponsorships goes into effect Aug. 1.

Diageo's Johnnie Walker whisky brand will replace West cigarettes as the primary sponsor on the cars driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya. Although financial details were not disclosed, published reports value the sponsorship agreement at more than $68 million.