Steve Moore, team manager, thought De Silvestro drove a great race, but was disappointed with Kanaan’s result. “A great day for the 78 car,” he said. “Simona drove a great race, starting eighth and finishing P8. It’s always great to finish in the top-ten. It’s disappointing on the 11 car. Having a miscalculation and always having difficulty finding telemetry at this track, the two combined together resulted in us running out of fuel on track. Obviously it was very disappointing for Tony in front of his home crowd.”

Kanaan chose to look on the positive side of the day. “It’s hard to find some words to explain the whole situation,” he said, “but I must say that we won and lost together. We don’t know what exactly happen, but we’re looking at this in a positive way; we had the opportunity to win and were competitive throughout the weekend. I would love to win in my hometown and I have to thank everyone for the kindness I received during the race; it was something indescribable. For sure we know that are going strong to the Indianapolis 500″.

Jimmy Vasser, team co-owner, was extremely disappointed for Kanaan and his sponsors and is looking into the cause of the No. 11′s fuel issue. “Very, very disappointing for Tony Kanaan in his home Grand Prix while representing the race sponsor Itaipava,” Vasser said. “I think the fans had a good show; they knew we were here. What happened on our fuel calculations…we ran the car out of fuel, there’s no doubt about that. But, our alarms didn’t go off and our numbers showed that we should have had a gallon in the car at that time. I’ve called for a full detailed report of the sequence of events that led to the car running out of fuel. Until I have that from the team when we get back I can’t speculate on exactly where the problem happened. But, all-in-all I think they knew we were here.

The team heads back to Indy tonight to regroup and finish preparations for the Indianapolis 500. The Greatest Spectacle in Racing airs live on ABC Sunday, May 26th at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Kanaan was obviously disappointed as well with the finish. “We had a good race going,” he said, “and I was set for a fifth-place finish until Servia took me out with less than two laps to go. It’s really frustrating… I was the leading Chevy car out there and it was looking like a good points race for us. I’m really disappointed on how it turned out.”

Make sure to tune in to the Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 and catch both KV Racing drivers in action as they try to move up the point’s ladder. The race airs on NBC Sports Network and on the IndyCar Radio Network (on Sirius XM Channel 211) beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on May 5th.

Birmingham, AL (Sunday, April 07, 2013) – Tony Kanaan, driver of the No. 11 Mouser – KV Racing Technology – SH Chevrolet/Firestone car, started 19th, but had a troubled day and saw his hopes for a Top-Ten finish go away and settled for a 13th place finishing position.

Steve Moore, the team’s manager summed it up. “It was a difficult day for KVRT today, with our strategies not really working in our favor,” he said. “Although Tony did make up some spots it obviously wasn’t the end result we were looking for. We’ll regroup when we get back to the shop and look forward to Long Beach.”

Kanaan echoed the sentiment. “It was just a long day,” he said. “I started the race on the primary tires in order to get them out of the way and was hoping to get more speed out of the red alternates to pick up some track position, but once I got stuck in traffic in the middle of the pack there was nothing I could do. Lost a handful of spots during our pits and managed to get some of them back at the end of the race, but it was still not our day. Let’s move on to Long Beach in a couple of weeks and focus on getting a better result there.”

The team heads back to Indianapolis tonight to regroup and start preparations for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach April 19 – 21. The race airs on NBC Sports Network with race coverage starting at 4:00 p.m. ET. For more information on the event and to purchase tickets, go to http://gplb.com/.

Kanaan, who started 11th, pushing hard all race and overcame a stall in the final pit stop on his way to his 107th career top-five finish. His combined streak of consecutive starts, which includes his career in CART and IndyCar is now 197, which currently puts him second in the standings behind KVRT co-owner Jimmy Vasser who has 211 consecutive starts.

Kanaan was pleased with the day’s results. “It’s definitely a good start to the season for everyone at KV Racing, finishing fourth and sixth”, he said. “My car was flawless while on track, the only problem we had during the race was that I couldn’t shift into neutral during my last stop. That cost me three spots on track and made me work a bit more for this fourth place finish. I was impressed that my last set of scuffed red Firestones lasted that long and I can’t say enough about my Chevy engine. It’s unfortunate that Simona couldn’t hold on for third place. She was running strong up front until she had no more tires. She deserved the podium. I guess Marco had a newer set of Firestones than both Simona and I, so it was just a matter of time for him to get by us.”

KVRT drivers will be in action again in two weeks at Barber Motorsports Park. Make sure to tune in and catch TK and Simona in action. The NBCSN broadcast begins at 2:00 p.m. ET with the green flag scheduled to wave at 2:40 p.m.

TK had little time to get used to the team and to the new type of car, but showed his typical race craft picking up 11 spots during the 40 lap race. “It was a steep learning curve, but I’m glad I did the Brasília race and got the feel for the car in preparation for the São Paulo round (Corrida do Milhão). During the start I was pushed off-track by another car, but I managed to get back on the pace and had some good fun racing some good old friends. I think I picked up more than 10 spots during the race, It was OK for a rookie like me,” said Kanaan.

Tony will be back to São Paulo for the last round of the “Copa Caixa Stock Car” on the 9th of December.

TK will drive the No. 100 Bassani Racing car sporting the same colors that he raced his IndyCar for the past two seasons during the São Paulo race, his already known Itaipava sponsored red car. The first race will take place in Brasilia on November 11th and the second one in São Paulo on December the 9th.

“I was trying to go for it,” Kanaan said.  ‘I had nothing to lose.  I was trying to win the Oval championship.  I got caught in the middle of traffic and just lost it.  It’s a shame.  We had a strong car when I was in front.   It is what it is.  Let’s move on and get ready for next year.”

Kanaan earned 12 points today and finished ninth in the championship race with 351 points.  The 37-year-old Brazilian also finished second to Ryan Hunter-Reay in the A. J. Foyt oval championship, which goes to the driver with the most points in the five oval races this year.  Kanaan, who ran to the end of 12 of the 15 races this year, scored eight top-10 finishes including seven top-six showings with three podium performances all on ovals, a season-high second at Milwaukee and thirds at Iowa and Indy (finished 11th at Texas).  The ever popular, Kanaan contested his ninth race at Fontana.  He has now finished in the top-10 six times including five top-five showings with three podiums and a best showing of second in his last two events here (2004 and 2005).  He clinched both the 1997 Indy Lights title and the 2004 IndyCar championship here at Fontana.

“It was too bad for the GEICO | MOUSER ELECTRONICS guys the way the race ended,” Kanaan said.  “We had a pretty good car.  I was just pushing hard on the last lap before a pit stop and I made a mistake.  The crew told me it was okay. Now I just have to focus on Fontana and the battle for the A. J. Foyt oval championship.”

After returning to the shop and tearing the #11 car apart for inspection the team found out that a right front shock failure caused Tony’s car to head to the wall after hitting the curb on the chicane. Kanaan made his second appearance in Baltimore.  Last year he went from the last row to the podium with a third place finish  The 37-year-old Brazilian, who is immensely popular with the fans, earned 12 points today, but dropped two positions to eighth in the championship race with 339 points, 33 out of fifth.  He has earned eight top-10 finishes this year including seven top-six showings with three podium performances (season-high second at Milwaukee and thirds at Iowa and Indy).  Five of his top-10 and four of his top-six finishes have come on street/road circuits

“I definitely had a top-six car today,” Kanaan said.  “The first lap I broke my front wing and even with that problem I got up to seventh place.  However during our last pit stop the car got stuck in neutral, which put us a lap down.  We continue to fight and fortunately were able to savage a top-10 finish which gave us valuable championship points.”

Kanaan, who contested his eighth race at Sonoma Raceway today, finished in the top-10 for the sixth time including a victory in his Sonoma debut in 2005.  The 37-year-old Brazilian has finished 12 of the 13 races this year (his only DNF came at St. Petersburg where he had a non-team related component failure).  Kanaan is having another remarkably consistent season.  He has earned eight top-10 finishes including seven top-six showings with three podium performances (season-high second at Milwaukee and thirds at Iowa and Indy).  Five of his top-10 finishes have come on road/street circuits (fourths at Toronto and Long Beach, sixths at Detroit and Mid-Ohio along with today’s 10th place showing).  The hugely popular Kanaan scored 20 points today and is now sixth in the championship race with 327 points, just 10 points out of fifth.

“I am very happy with today’s result,” Kanaan said.  “The car was very good in the race. We went with a three stop strategy and despite no yellow flags we made it work. It was a very physical race with no cautions.  Now we have to build on this over the last few races.”

Kanaan, who contested his 11th race at Mid-Ohio today, has finished in the top-10 seven times with a best showing of fourth also in 2007.  The 37-year-old Brazilian has seven top-six finishes this season including three top-three showings (season-high second at Milwaukee and thirds at Iowa and Indy).  Four of his top-six finishes have come on road/street circuits.  In addition to today’s six place showing he has fourths at Toronto and Long Beach plus a sixth at Detroit.  Kanaan earned 28 points today and is now seventh in the championship race with 307 points, 72 out of first and nine out of fifth.