IndyCar’s Tony Kanaan aims for next leg of $1-million triple crown

IndyCar’s Tony Kanaan has his sights set on more than Victory Lane at Pocono Raceway this Sunday. There’s also $1 million hanging in the balance.

If an IndyCar driver wins this year’s Indianapolis 500, the race at Pocono and the season finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Oct. 19, the driver earns a $1-million “triple crown” bonus.

Kanaan won this year’s Indianapolis 500 in May.

But Kanaan will have his work cut out in the Pocono IndyCar 400. He’s never raced on the triangular, 2.5-mile Pocono track in eastern Pennsylvania. However, Kanaan tested there June 25 and plans to do so again Thursday.

“Obviously I’m the only one that has a chance to win” the prize “so the pressure is on,” Kanaan said. “But I’m excited.” Kanaan already earned $2.3 million for his Indy 500 victory.

The triple-crown prize is being offered by golfer Fuzzy Zoeller’s liquor company, Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka, which also sponsors driver Ed Carpenter in the Izod IndyCar Series.

Sunday’s race also marks the first time the IndyCar series has raced at Pocono since 1989.

And the series had a triple-crown bonus before, from 1971 to 1989. The only driver to win it that period was Al Unser, who won when the three tracks involved were Indianapolis, Pocono and the defunct Ontario (Calif.) Motor Speedway.

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