{"id":30710,"date":"2025-02-20T21:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T02:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=30710"},"modified":"2025-02-21T12:30:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T17:30:50","slug":"tony-kannan-as-team-principal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/20\/tony-kannan-as-team-principal\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrow McLaren Name Tony Kanaan as Team Principal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arrow McLaren has revealed two front-office changes in preparation for the 2025 season. Former IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan will assume the team principal position, while Kevin Thimjon will join as president.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Tony Kanaan: Racer to Team Principal<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Veteran IndyCar star Tony Kanaan will take his talents and leadership to the leadership role for Arrow McLaren in 2025. Joining him at the reins is Kevin Thimjon, who will run operations as president of the race team. Arrow McLaren has an exciting lineup of drivers that includes Pato O&#8217;Ward, Nolan Siegel, and Christian Lungaard and can reach new heights with Kanaan&#8217;s leadership.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Happy to take on this new challenge as Team Principal at <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ArrowMcLaren?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ArrowMcLaren<\/a> ! It\u2019s an honor to continue this journey with such an incredible organization. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zXwDCjpq8o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/zXwDCjpq8o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tony Kanaan (@TonyKanaan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyKanaan\/status\/1892666177249329562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>IndyCar Career:<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kanaan appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2020\/03\/24\/dan-wheldon-a-gambling-man-in-2008-win-at-iowa\/\" target=\"_self\">296 IndyCar races<\/a> over the span of 23 years, making his debut in 2002<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a one-off entry into the Indianapolis 500 and then starting full-time in 2003<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. His first win came in the second race that season at the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2003 Purex Dial Indy 200 in Phoenix. In his first full season, Kanaan would finish 4th in the championship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The year after that, he won in Phoenix for the second straight year, the Bombardier 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway to secure the championship.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his career, he earned 16 victories, including the 2013 Indianapolis 500. After starting 11th, Kanaan made his way up and battled for the lead. On lap 197, Kanaan took the lead on a restart for a crash by Graham Rahal with Carlos Mu\u00f1oz. The race finished under caution, and Kanaan finally won a &#8220;500&#8221; in his twelfth start, tying<\/span> Sam Hanks as the most experienced driver to win.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020 and 2021, he lessened his role as he ran a partial schedule, driving on oval courses. Then, eventually just running in the &#8220;500&#8221; in 2022 and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/12\/23\/indycar-taking-a-look-at-the-2023-indy-500-lineup\/\" target=\"_self\">2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Brazilian racing driver made his first and last appearance with Arrow McLaren racing in his final Indianapolis 500 in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/12\/23\/indycar-taking-a-look-at-the-2023-indy-500-lineup\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">IndyCar: Taking a look at the 2023 Indy 500 lineup<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Rising the ranks at Arrow McLaren<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 2023, he has taken on roles increasingly influential within the organization, evolving from a special advisor to deputy team principal, a position he held<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> two months before McLaren parted ways with its team principal Gavin Ward this offseason, to now assuming the team principal role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA lot has happened since my last Indy 500 less than two years ago, to say the least,\u201d Kanaan said in an <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.indycar.com\/news\/2025\/02\/02-20-mclaren-leadership\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IndyCar article<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve embraced every opportunity to grow with the team, and I\u2019m excited to officially step into the team principal role, and having Kevin join to take on the business side of our team is part of our winning strategy. We\u2019re always looking for good people and talent to make the team stronger, and he and I will work well together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As his role of team principal, Kanaan will oversee team and driver development and key commercial relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Who is Kevin Thimjon?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kevin Thimjon will be joining Arrow McLaren as the president. He will lead the team\u2019s business operations, including finance, commercial strategy, and administration, supporting the team\u2019s long-term growth and operational efficiency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His extensive leadership through his experience from roles at Core BTS, Lids Sports Group, and Just Marketing International (JMI).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thimjon also joins the McLaren Racing Executive Team under CEO Zak Brown.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thimjon and Brown worked together at JMI for several years, and are confident that their past relationship together will help grow a team and brand that has a lot of unlocked potential.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kannan\u2019s expertise in racing and Thimjon&#8217;s expertise in business, Zak is certain that the two will help grow McLaren in the right direction for long-term success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cUnder Tony\u2019s leadership, the team has been moving forward quickly, and he and Kevin will work well together to keep that positive momentum up. Our sights are set on how we stabilize and grow strategically while competing at the top,\u201d Brown said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Including the pair of moves Thursday, Arrow McLaren&#8217;s leadership team is comprised of Brad O&#8217;Brien, vice president of finance; Brian Barnhart, general manager; Lauren Gaudion, vice president of marketing and communications; Sophie Markakis-Smith, chief of staff; Nick Snyder, technical director; and Scott Harner, director of racing operations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/06\/driver-evolution-how-arrow-mclaren-landed-on-their-teams-newest-addition-for-next-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Driver Evolution: How Arrow McLaren Landed on Their Team&#8217;s Newest Addition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arrow McLaren has revealed two front-office changes in preparation for the 2025 season. Former IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan will assume the team principal position, while Kevin Thimjon will join as president. Tony Kanaan: Racer to Team Principal Veteran IndyCar star Tony Kanaan will take his talents and leadership to the leadership role for Arrow McLaren [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5307,"featured_media":30713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,1663],"tags":[2492,539,1351,812],"class_list":["post-30710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-indycar","category-ntt-indycar-series","tag-arrow-mclaren","tag-indy-500","tag-tony-kanaan","tag-zak-brown"],"modified_by":"Hayden Murdock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30710"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30743,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30710\/revisions\/30743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}