BALTIMORE – Tony Kanaan relates the story of stopping to converse with the longtime “Yellow Shirt” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the night before the 97th Indianapolis 500.

“I looked down at the (car’s) mileage and it was 1,112,” said Kanaan, who less than 24 hours later was celebrating his maiden “500” victory. “I took a picture and sent it to Jimmy.”

There was thread running through the Indianapolis 500 in May involving Nos. 11 and 12 for the IZOD IndyCar Series driver and KV Racing Technology co-owner Jimmy Vasser.

Click it: Kanaan's streak forged through trials

“We had kind of this numerological thing in Indianapolis that the stars were aligning for us,” Vasser said. “Twelve was my number when I drove, and it is a thread through a lot of my life. My wine is V12. So Tony qualified 12th, started 12th at Indy and we were in pit box 12. He’s number 11, so the 11s and the 12s were coming up all the time and we were joking about it.”

Kanaan won the Indy 500 in his 12th attempt. On Sept. 1, Kanaan will break Vasser’s record of consecutive starts with his 212th.

“I’m thrilled with achieving such a record,” said Kanaan, who accomplished the feat in 12 years. “The trophies are cool, but the memories are what’s going to last.”

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