Kanaan, Castroneves battled over 15th in Indy 500 like it was “for the win”

Helio Castroneves beat retiring IndyCar rival Tony Kanaan to finish 15th in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 after battling on the final restart like it was “for the win,” according to Kanaan.

Kanaan called time on his open-wheel racing career last weekend with his 390^th start in US open-wheel racing since his graduation to Champ Car in 1998.

He agreed a one-race deal with Arrow McLaren to make a 22nd Indy 500 appearance after finishing third with Chip Ganassi Racing last season.

The 2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner bows out with a total of 17 wins at the premier level in America.

Childhood friends Kanaan and four-times Indy 500-winning compatriot Castroneves found themselves racing for 15^th position and relived the experience on Monday night’s Victory Celebration banquet.

“It’s my last race, and with two laps to go, I’m 15^th and I thought ‘alright, let’s try a TK restart’ and I asked who was behind me,” said Kanaan.

“I hear ‘Helio’. I’m like ‘no, that can’t be right man, we’re not going to do this now’…”

Turning to the audience, he said to Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden: “Josef, the way you raced [Marcus] Ericsson for the win, we raced for 15th! And with no mercy.

“I’m like ‘waaaaah, he might let me do it this time?’ No! He passed me on the restart and blocked me into Turn 3.”

Source: Autosport