NTT INDYCAR SERIES NEWS CONFERENCE

November 13, 2025

Tony Kanaan

Ryan Hunter-Reay

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: As you know, the month of May will be here before we know it, and once again, Arrow McLaren will feature four entries for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

Earlier this morning, just an hour ago, the team announced that Ryan Hunter-Reay will be making a run at his 18th 500 and will be doing so in the No. 31 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, the No. 31 matching the car number that he first ran with back in his INDYCAR SERIES and then ChampCar Series debut back in 2003.

And the 2014 Indy 500 winner and 2012 INDYCAR SERIES champion joins us this morning, as does the team principal for Arrow McLaren and the 2013 winner of the 500 in Tony Kanaan.

Fellas, good morning. Thanks for doing this. T.K., let's start with you. You two were teammates for a year back at Andretti, reunited in a much different way now. Tell us how that all came together.

TONY KANAAN: We were just talking about it off camera. Obviously we were only teammates for a year, but the chemistry that we had that year was actually awesome. My departure from Andretti in the year kept that, I think, chemistry that we had. We worked really, really well together.

To be fair as far as setup-wise, he was the closest teammate I had to run something similar. But over the years we've still kept being friends. Our families are friends, my wife and kids.

Fast forward, the first time I called him, I said, Would you ever imagine that I would have a possibility to actually be your boss? He laughed.

When it came about, what we're trying to build here at Arrow McLaren since I've been here is to grow the team as far as winning the Indy 500, winning the championship, all the things that every team will set a goal at the beginning of the year.

To me, the fourth car, if you look at the history of this fourth car, especially with the past driver we had, which was Kyle Larson, it's an understatement to overcome even a figure that big, it's going to be big news. The intention of running that car since before me, because if you look at Montoya who ran that before, is to have another chance to win the 500.

I think both of us came from a four-car team that put all the efforts on that. I landed at this place because of that in '23, if you guys remember. To me it was like I need a winner. I need a guy that is going to be able to win the Indy 500. There is not many guys that are available right now.

I told people that if they mentioned me one more time, I was going to fire whoever is saying that, because I'm not coming back. It's been very confusing for me. I called Ryan, and I will let him talk about the details, but I called him. I said, Hey, it's you and I. We are going to negotiate, you and I, and we have three days to do it. And we made it happen.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, it all happened very fast.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan, congrats. What an awesome opportunity, and it's obviously always great to see you back at Indianapolis. You certainly -- you know it wasn't the result you wanted last year, but you made a great run at it. So this is going to be another great opportunity. What's it mean for you to join a team like this, Tony Kanaan and the others?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It's huge. It's massive. The atmosphere within this place -- where this team currently is, right, the trajectory they've been on, that trend, they've come close. They've been one of the best -- Arrow McLaren has been one of the best teams at Indy the past few years.

It continues to work in that direction on road courses, street circuits. Everything is kind of hitting its stride here, and that's huge credit to Tony, Kyle, everybody here that's really shaping this into a major powerhouse.

I'm thrilled to be a part of it, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to hopefully better the team in any way that I can, contribute.

Yeah, it's just a fantastic opportunity. The moment I walked in the door, so many familiar faces that I've worked with forever. Now somehow Tony is my boss. He's been bossing me around this place for two days straight.

But it's great to see a lot of people that I've worked with here both on the engineering side and the crew. Yeah, I felt at home immediately. We both feel that urgency at Indy, right? Coming off of him second place, my situation with coming very close to having a real shot at that fight at the end to win, and just understanding the fact that I have such a passion for Indy, and to do it with this team and this group and this opportunity is something that I'm very grateful for.

TONY KANAAN: Dave, we're open for questions. I don't want to take over, but there is some little bits and pieces and bits here that I think we should mention.

Coincidentally, Ryan was extremely disappointed after what happened to him last year. Monday morning he is packing his own because he's cheap. He's packing his own bus, his 400 strollers and golf carts. Dario and I approach him at the bus lot. You remember the conversation we had?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TONY KANAAN: He was very disappointed. I said, Why are you doing this? Because you talk about two retired guys talking to one that's, like, Tell me why, because do you really need to be doing that now? Like, do you need this?

That is what actually led to this. So I'll leave at that because that is something else that I wanted to add that nobody knew. We had no idea why. I wasn't fishing for it.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: No.

TONY KANAAN: Dario and I talking to a friend that we care that had the most heartbreaking -- Indy can do that to you.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Absolutely, yeah.

TONY KANAAN: Now I'm responsible not to break his heart.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: The conversation with Dario and T.K. and it was in the bus lot, it was just organic. I was completely drained mentally, physically. Yeah, the first thing they said was, Do we really need to be doing -- do you really need to be doing -- I said, This place matters so much to me. To have a shot at a win like that is everything to me.

TONY KANAAN: That casual conversation obviously stick to me, and then when we needed somebody, I had no doubt who I needed to go call.

THE MODERATOR: A testament to you never know where a conversation is going to go, as innocuous as that was, the day after the Indy 500, and now here we are several months later and look at this new partnership. That's pretty cool.

We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Before I ask a real question, when you two were teammates in 2010 at Andretti, did Tony boss you around then?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: (Laughing) no, I mean, we got to work straightaway. I'll never forget the Sebring test that we had where it was immediately obvious, I think within the first couple of hours, that, oh, my gosh, we are saying the exact same thing, we have the exact same driving style, we want the car on the nose, we're dependent on this here and that corner there. Everything just kind of meshed immediately.

At that point Andretti had been coming off of a pretty low streak. Through that test and working with our engineers and then the next test and the whole offseason development and the package that we put together, we had a really powerful, successful 2010. So that was huge for me in my career.

I learned a lot from him as well, even at that point as I was having -- as I was winning races. I was still learning from his experience in a big team. That was my first time ever in a really big organization like that.

Yeah, it was a part of my building blocks to my career. Yeah, I'll forever be grateful for that, and some of the best memories I have because I started with a three-race deal. He was a part of -- at that time we announced Racing For Cancer too, and he was the first to endorse it. He was the first to put money into it.

Yeah, aside from our friendship, we have a great history on the racing side as well.

Q. What is it about the Indianapolis 500 that really seems to favor older drivers who have a lot of experience? Yourself last year. Takuma last year. T.K. in 2022. You jump in the car; you have a shot at the victory. Everybody used to say that drivers had to compete in previous INDYCAR races that season before heading to Indy, but I think that's changed a little bit. Why is that?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It's complex. It really is. It is the toughest race to win. It requires finesse at the right times, it requires a massive amount of aggression at other times, but you have to know when to apply those, at what time, and when that's appropriate.

You also have to keep the big-picture mentality on everything that you do, everything, whether it be in practice, qualifying.

It's not just what's on the surface, which you can operate kind of at that level at some other racetracks where it's just 100% aggression, hair on fire. It could pan out for you the whole weekend. At Indy it requires depth, for sure.

TONY KANAAN: To add to that, it's a very particular place, it goes without saying, but that just being talented, but if you don't have experienced the environment, the pressure, how it gets to your head, it is not a joke mentally.

The experience helps you block all that, which makes it you have an advantage of a much younger talent or even better than you driver, but that place, you need to run a couple of times. Some people go, they come and win the first time, but, like, rarely. That's why I think us veterans, because you know how to navigate the month.

Q. Because the two of you know each other so well, how much is that of an advantage going into Indy? Because, I mean, you guys really know each other pretty well, and you speak the same language, and you're both racers' racers. How important is that? Because in a lot of ways that has to be a big benefit.

TONY KANAAN: I mean, for me, yes. With my role nowadays, I have to really police myself to do my real job instead of being with all the drivers, especially in May because it's the place. I got to focus on -- I have 120 people here, sponsors.

Now having a guy that knows exactly the way I think because he's closer to me, but he's also now in that room because he's driving a car, I'm going to lean on him quite a bit, and he knows that, to be able to -- what I don't have time and I would like to be doing, he's going to enjoy and have the pleasure to do it and also to drive.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, it's already been a benefit, honestly. Huge credit and my gratitude obviously to Zak, Tony, Kevin, everybody at the team, but the fact that Tony and I know each other so well, we were able to basically just hash this out on the phone.

TONY KANAAN: It had to be on the phone.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: In a very short period of time. Like I mentioned earlier, already walking in here, I feel like I know about 70% of the folks in here already, and I've worked with them in the competitive environment in years past. That is going to absolutely short-track the situation.

Q. Last one from me, and this is for T.K. How big a luxury is it this year you don't have to worry about being in a time crunch, you don't have to worry if the race starts a little late, you don't have to worry if there's a rain delay, you don't have to worry about him getting to the helipad to leave for another race? How much will that allow his crew and you to focus on the Indianapolis 500 for him?

TONY KANAAN: Well, huge relief, Bruce. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because, I mean, I drove the car again last year for a few laps. I would do that any day of my life, but it's helping us to focus now, me, the team, him.

To be fair, it was a difficult spot. I'm, like, I don't understand how I'm running the place, but I can't make that decision not to be in the race car. Obviously, you guys all know how that came about. I wasn't a team principal when we signed a two-year deal. I was the reserve driver.

I thought that I've been through every single scare moment, tense, nervousness before a 500 in my 26 years. The way I felt last year, I don't want to ever feel it again when Rocket called me. I was on the grid, dressed like this. He says, Do you have your stuff ready? That there, I was never more frightened in my entire life. I wasn't ready mentally and everything else.

I'm glad that chapter is over. Then if guys are going to make -- if Dixon and Dario are going to make fun of me today, I fully retire.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Oh, I didn't tell you. I'm working on a double deal. I forgot to tell you.

TONY KANAAN: Who is your boss? You got to talk to the boss. Zak (laughing).

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Just kidding.

Q. I'm going to start first with Tony. Tony, the thought of giving to the fourth car a chance of fighting for the 500, is Ryan going to be doing some development with the car throughout the season? I mean, like, sim work and that kind of development stuff?

TONY KANAAN: Look, when we orchestrate this deal, I want Ryan to be part of the team. He wants to be part of the team. He doesn't want to be a one-off. He is part of Arrow McLaren. He will be extremely involved. I'm going to lean on him. I think it's a huge advantage that we have him around with his experience, especially for our drivers. So the answer is yes.

The plan is being laid out. But he just asked me before we went on, he said, When do you think I need to come back? I said, This is your house. You come back whenever you want. Obviously, he lives in Florida. He's going to pick to come here after February, for sure. I wouldn't come here in the winter.

We'll be leaning on him, and I will use him quite a bit. And that's what he wants. He wants to contribute. That's what I did when I joined this team at his position.

The answer is he's going to be contributing in everything, but I cannot really set a plan right now, because it's still developing, but we're debriefing and talking about stuff.

Q. Ryan, you said earlier before about getting another shot to try to win the 500 with McLaren. What other goals do you pursue with this signing for such a strong team like McLaren? I mean, you went with Ganassi, and you have done quite a huge history here in the sport. Obviously what other goals do you pursue with this signing for McLaren?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Honestly, my goal is to operate at my maximum potential, and this is what this environment, being in an environment like this, is what comes naturally to me.

I'm happy about that, right, and that I get to work with people who want to push themselves and move forward and being a part of that.

Like I said earlier, I'm a part of this program, but I want to contribute to it. I want to better it in any way that I can, if I can. That's really as simple as it gets.

When it comes down to getting on the racetrack and being competitive, that stuff is just -- that's a given. We're here because we want to win. That's it. There's no other conversation. We're here because that is the goal. We're not here to qualify. We're not here to participate. Honestly, that's it. Eyes on the prize.

Q. Just starting off with Ryan, I'm kind of intrigued what your story was like last year at the Indy 500, because it kind of felt like you suddenly appeared into winning contention after 160 laps. I have spoken to a few people about this who can't give me more information. So how did you just end up in that winning position all of a sudden last year where you were suddenly in contention?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, it's a good question. That's the one thing about racing that from the outside looking in as a spectator, it's very, very difficult sometimes to keep track of strategies, right, different strategies, especially at the Indy 500 when you have early yellows and another one kind of compounds onto that.

At that point you're going to have a split in the field. You can see it happen at the beginning of the Indy 500. You have half the field pit or a quarter of the field pit. You have to pay attention at that point. Even Fox booth missed it for a good portion of it. They were actually on Palou at the time or something saying he was the effective leader, when, in fact, we were the effective leader. We were just on the other side of the racetrack.

When you have two different strategies, right, then at some point then you can stop and maybe fill a half tank of fuel because you stopped in the last one when others didn't. Then you can leapfrog a bunch of cars, and then you have to pass cars on track, obviously. You have to have the speed on track in order to maintain that. I was running with a bunch of cars that had been running in the top 6, 7 all day.

Yeah, I wouldn't say we just appeared there, because it was more just that it wasn't monitored, it wasn't followed, I guess. If you looked at it based on when cars pit and where they came out and you looked at a chart on that, you'll see that we didn't just appear. We were there. So yeah, just came up short on -- gosh, it had to be not even an eighth of a mile in fuel, I think. It was very, very, very close.

Unfortunately, after looking at it, we didn't even need to pit on that lap. We could have pit the one before and just been in the same fuel position. Hindsight is 20/20 a lot of the time in racing. Racing is pretty cruel. Indy can be as well. That's what happened.

Q. When you get so agonizingly close for the rest of the field next week you go to Detroit, it's a new race, new mentality, but for yourself you almost had a year to sit on it because you don't have any other racing going. That's your focus each year. When you do have a close call and have nothing else to think about, how does that mentality shape you? How do you kind of go over that in your mind and sort of look forward rather than looking at the past?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, every driver has their different stories. I'm sure just with Tony and myself, if we were to talk about the ones that were close or the ones that got away or the ones that we thought we would win, we could be here for about, you know, an hour telling you different stories from different years.

One that comes to mind, 2016. I absolutely should have won that race. Got taken out in pit lane. That's Indy. Everything has to be perfect, everything.

It just fuels the fire more. You can either use it as -- it can either manifest itself into negative energy, or you can use it into a positive, redirect it into a positive direction, which I love doing.

TONY KANAAN: Then I think we're lucky enough that when we feel this way, we turn around and look, there's a Borg-Warner on the shelf that I guess it doesn't suck that much.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: That helps, too. That helps, too. Good point.

Q. For Tony, you said a little bit earlier, this sort of Arrow McLaren entry are always focused on placing real drivers with real prestige in the motorsport world, so was Ryan somebody you went straight away? Were you exploring other options? How did you ultimately choose Ryan to take that seat up?

TONY KANAAN: I mean, it started, obviously you have to explore, because I didn't even know if he was available. He was there at Dreyer & Reinbold for a few years. Yeah, we had a list, but to me -- also, Zak is a big part of this, and Zak is extremely hands-on.

The beauty between Zak and I, we're both racers, we both think the same way. When he asks my opinion, my number one name was him, but because the people that are available, I cannot say, oh, I want, you know, because people are on the contract. There was more people on the list, but I said, if I can get him.

And typical Zak says, Well, make it happen. Do you need my help?

I'm, like, No, boss, let me try to handle. Obviously it landed pretty well.

Q. It's been about a year since you have taken charge of the team. I'm interested to get sort of your thoughts on how the last year has gone, the progress the team has made, and what you really need to do to sort of deaden that gap to Ganassi and Palou at the top of the INDYCAR standings?

TONY KANAAN: I'm going to try to make a shorter answer. Otherwise, we'll have a three-hour press conference.

Since day one, I told the guys here that I love to be here. I don't know everything. I don't need to know everything. My job will be to motivate these people. The only way I'm going to motivate them is being here.

I have 13, 14 hours a day days. I was fortunate enough in my career throughout my success, I had very loyal people that, by default, are really good in what they do. They know where I stand, the way I push. They know my obsession of winning, the mentality of McLaren, and what Zak is expecting from this entire organization.

So we had a great year, yes. You can ask Tony Kanaan, Palou had a great year. We didn't. We had an okay year, and nobody else did. That's the standard. That doesn't mean we didn't have a good year. Let's take the positives, and we have to move forward.

My wife actually told me that yesterday. She said, You know, you're not very good at taking compliments. This guy sent me a text last night, and I'm, like, Look at this.

She said, Are you not happy about it?

I said, It's okay.

She said, Can you enjoy that? It's a guy that's been on the outside and came in and says, Man, this is impressive. I'm just here embedded.

So what's happening here, I'm building something the way I know. I'm bringing people the way I know I trust to do everything we can to be able to make this team successful. If that's going to happen or not, we'll see. We'll get judged by the results. I love pressure. I love to be put on the spot. That was my entire life, so I'm not afraid of that.

We have an opportunity here with the people that we have now and Ryan joining that for us, for me, as this organization we can create the same type of history I did with Dan, Dario, Herta at Andretti in a different way. This will be cool to look back and say, man, this was, like, doing what we did.

To me, pressure is on. Pressure comes to me, and I give to everybody else, too, so we all go for it.

Q. Just kind of one more of a light-hearted but kind of serious question. Both of your careers are remarkably similar. You each have an Indy 500 win. Coincidentally enough, your faces are both next to each other on the board because of that. You both have a championship. Your birthdays are even two weeks from one another. Is there a coincidence of these parallels, or is there something about this era that you two have been racing in that have made your paths so similar?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: That's a good question, and the fact that we had the same driving styles, too, and work so closely on the setup side and kind of revamping the Andretti approach at the time was a big deal.

Yeah, we were talking about that, too. I wasn't even aware of it.

TONY KANAAN: Me neither.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: We have the same amount of wins. The 500, like you said, the INDYCAR Championship. The teams we've been with, we've moved around, and jumped around. That's all a part of the makeup of the drivers we've become and the people we've become.

Yeah, like Tony mentioned, with the people that he has here, they're back here working with him for a reason, right, because there was success there, there was a good working relationship. It's all about giving, taking, and working that environment that you work with. INDYCAR and racing in general, it's a team sport.

You can see folks' true colors and their personalities when you get them under that pressure and when you get them into that ultra-competitive environment. Yeah, we've worked really well together on that side of it and outside of it, as friends, too. Yeah, it's pretty unique, definitely.

TONY KANAAN: I don't believe in coincidence, Eric, but then now it's up to Ryan to change that. He can have one more win and one more 500 win than me.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: That's really the reason I'm here.

TONY KANAAN: No pressure. It's crazy, but we don't look at stats, but when we hired him, and Will came to me and showed me, I was, like, Wow.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, definitely.

TONY KANAAN: That makes us either good or we both suck really bad.

Q. T.K., I think you have three of the tallest drivers, maybe three of the top five tallest drivers in the paddock. I want to go back to what you and I discussed and kind of what you learned at Andretti and Ganassi, just bringing more and more knowledge into that engineering room, into those debriefs, talk about what Ryan will bring. And to me, as somebody who knows you both and you can explain this how you would like, T.K., but it just makes sense in helping the development of Nolan, who is a young driver. Obviously getting Pato over the top to winning an Indianapolis 500. To me it simply makes sense. I'll let you take that from there.

TONY KANAAN: I mean, Tony, you and I spoke about this. I think, look, I'm not saying I brought better talent than we had here in the past, because I think everybody that is around INDYCAR for as long as we all have been, everybody have their own talent.

I needed a change, in my opinion, and that's obviously I'm in charge. I got to follow my instinct. We have to change the mentality, change the way we're doing things, because let's face it, it was okay, but the okay was not okay from my standards, right? Now I'm in charge, so I have two choices. I'll keep doing what they did, or I'll change it because I think I know come from different experiences.

So to me that's what it is. It's changing the mindset. Sometimes you got to change the people to be able to buy the culture or the mindset that you have. Some people are happy winning two races. To me, I'm not. Some people are happy finishing third in a championship. We're not.

That there, it was bringing some people with that mentality to help the talented people I had here to change that as well. That's what we've been doing. Makes sense, yes, but a lot of things make sense, but you need to put the effort to make it happen.

I think that is when I go and say, I'm relentless, my obsession, whatever how people want to call it, you're crazy. If I put something in my head, I want to make it happen. If I believe it and I have the support of the people around me, including my big boss that just actually he puts more fire under my Brazilian behind than anybody else, then yes.

I know along the way we're going to have some hiccups and make mistakes, but it made a lot of sense. If it makes sense, we're going to make it happen. That's why I said we're not going to have an option. We're going to have to do this.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, absolutely.

Q. I'm assuming, is this just this year for now, but a possibility of 2027?

TONY KANAAN: It's a multi-year deal. It's tough to, like -- contracts are so confidential, but he's here. Let me put it this way... if he wins, he's going to have to come back. If he doesn't win, he'll have to decide. I want him here as long as he wants to be here. I think he is extremely an asset for this team for what he does. He has time to help me on the other side. You heard me in the interview before that. It's his house, and as long as he wants to stay around, we'll have him.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I appreciate that. But, yeah, we're focused on right now. We're focused on end of '25 and working in development of early '26. Obviously with our eyes on the ultimate goal.

Q. Firstly, Ryan, the guy next to you sat in a seat in the twilight of his career and nearly last year in an emergency role. Also, greats like Kyle Larson and Juan Montoya also previously sat in the seat you're about to take over. How much does it mean to you to take over that seat with a lot of greats that have sat there?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I mean, it's a huge honor to be with Arrow McLaren, to represent them on and off the racetrack. It's one of the most iconic racing teams in history. It's a full-blown powerhouse brand, and obviously that fact is not lost on me.

But I'm just focused on the job that I know how to do working in this building. Yeah, like you said, the fourth car has been a superstar entry, for sure, but that also goes with the other guys that are here already, right, the full-time drivers. The building is loaded with talent. The team is. On the management side, engineering, crew, all of it.

I don't really look at it that way. I just look at it, like, hey, I fit into this position, and I need to do what I know how to do and apply myself the best way I can. I know when I put the visor down, that will come naturally for me, as it does.

Yeah, everybody says I'm looking forward to it, but yeah, I can't wait to get started.

Q. I know you said this is a multi-year deal. Tony said that, but how long do you think you'll be able to compete in the Indy 500?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I don't even think about that. Right now everybody -- you get that question, what, probably every year for the past seven or eight. You re-evaluate after every 500. It's situationally dependent.

I have to understand exactly what preparation has gone into it, the amount of development work that's gone into it, what my position looks like within that team, within that car that is within that team, and I make a decision based on my past knowledge. Usually it's the right one.

Yeah, you also have to obviously have the fire. You have to have every bit of it. You can't go to Indy and be at 99%. You have to be past 100, fully committed. Otherwise, you're doing yourself and everybody else that you are around a disservice.

I don't even think about that. I'll let you know maybe July of '26. I'll give you another --

TONY KANAAN: To his point is exactly what he said. Why I say it's a multi-year deal and he will decide, because I've been in this seat. If he is 99%, I also don't want to do that to him, and I also don't want to do that to this team that is putting the effort to win with a fourth car, an extra effort with the guys building an extra car.

I think it's a pretty good chemistry because we understand exactly what it is. Nobody is going to get offended or, like -- if you're going to run, we're going to make sure we run. If we can't run for whatever reason on our end, he's going to know and vice versa.

So I think it is a mutual decision, and that's why to put a number on the year, you know, as we keep winning, I can assure you we're going to keep coming back.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: That's what we're focused on right now.

Q. Tony, I have a couple of questions for you. You said that you don't want to be in the stressful situation of maybe having to gear up again, but for Arrow McLaren, is there still openness to having NASCAR superstars, like a Connor Zilisch, coming up and interested in doing the double? Is there interest in having another double attempt?

TONY KANAAN: Look, we're committed to him right now. I just said it's a multi-year deal. I'm definitely not running five cars.

I think that kid is extremely talented. But, yeah, we don't -- I appreciate -- I've been through with what Kyle did. I think nowadays it's becoming more and more difficult than actually in the past when Tony Stewart did or Kurt.

I'm a big fan of I never say no to anything. My commitment is to Ryan for the next few years. I'm not going to say no, but I think right now it's definitely not where my head is at.

Q. Have you contacted Larson since his Cup Series championship to congratulate?

TONY KANAAN: Of course, of course, of course. We kept through this year, we talked quite a bit. He was making fun of me. He has a documentary that is about to come out. He said there should be a Tony Kanaan documentary where they follow us all the time.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I got to watch this.

TONY KANAAN: I did congratulate him. Obviously he was pretty humble about saying, man, sometimes you get lucky. We did everything we could, but this one, I got to say we did everything right, but the other guys did everything wrong. I'm happy for them.

We actually just delivered to Mr. Hendrick his actual INDYCAR fully rebuilt. It is in the museum. So it was good to see. It was nice to see him win.

Q. A couple of questions, Ryan. Obviously another important factor is keeping this continue with Chevrolet for the 500. How has been the work with this brand especially the past few years?

TONY HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, great point there. I have a super tight, great relationship with Chevrolet over the years, GM, Ilmor, won a championship with them, just years and years even in sports car racing.

Yeah, to come back and have another shot, work with that same group at Ilmor, my engineer who I worked with forever at Andretti is heading up the trackside competition side at Ilmor as well. It's just another benefit to the program as well, kind of continuing working down that platform and not starting anew somewhere else.

There's a lot of scenarios like that here. I'm definitely looking forward to continuing with Chevy, and they seem to have done a really good job, especially on the superspeedways.

Q. Also, this also has a lot more to do with leadership. After working with many young drivers and now working with the experienced lineup, but also is way younger, how do you expect to blend with them and share all that experience, especially this race?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: When you are younger, you don't understand that the more you can communicate with your teammates and work together, right, not only on track, that's a very small part of it, it's more developing the setup over months and having a like-mindedness in the approach and how you might go about that.

A lot of them, especially the ones that come from Europe, are very tight-lipped on it. The European mentality is your teammate is your No. 1 enemy. At Indy that's not the case.

You may end up battling that teammate at the end of the race, but I would rather have that and two strong cars from the same team or three strong cars or four and have a better shot at it, having gone through a really good cohesive process where everybody is working together and developing a better package for the team.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan and T.K., thanks for the opportunity to catch up, and congratulations. 192 days away from the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500, if you are counting down like all of us are.

TONY KANAAN: I hired Ryan with the condition also that he is going to help us with the move to the new shop, by the way.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'll bring my pickup truck.

THE MODERATOR: With that guy next to you, make sure you read the fine print in the contract. Stuff like that is going to come up.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: For sure.

TONY KANAAN: We are getting old. We need readers.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: He is the guy at the end of the radio commercial that talks super fast.