Tony Kanaan insisted after driving in his ultimate Indianapolis 500 in Might that he wasn’t finished with racing fully.

Seems he isn’t even leaving his crew.

Arrow McLaren introduced Thursday the creation of a brand new hybrid function inside its racing program for Kanaan, the favored Brazilian who completed sixteenth in “The Best Spectacle in Racing” in a fourth automobile for the crew. Kanaan will journey with McLaren to races and exams, mentor drivers and assist with business partnerships and enterprise pursuits.

“I am very excited to affix the Arrow McLaren crew on this function,” stated Kanaan, the 2004 sequence champion and fan favourite whose 2013 victory within the Indy 500 after years of attempting stays probably the most poignant within the race’s wealthy historical past.

Kanaan, who joined Arrow McLaren in November 2022, traveled with the crew to most of its races early within the season. And he was intrigued by the imaginative and prescient of McLaren boss Zak Brown and racing director Gavin Ward.

“Zak and Gavin have a terrific imaginative and prescient for the place this crew is headed and what we are able to accomplish, so I stay up for serving to us get there and making the crew and the sequence even higher,” Kanaan stated. “This crew works onerous and has loads of enjoyable. That is what racing is about, and it is why I like being a part of the crew.”

Whereas the crew has but to win this season heading into this weekend’s race at Mid-Ohio, every of McLaren’s three full-time drivers — Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist — has been on the rostrum no less than as soon as. O’Ward has three second-place runs together with a third-place end two weeks in the past at Highway America and is fourth within the factors standings.

“Tony’s distinct ability set will assist the crew join how we go racing to how we are able to take advantage of our partnerships,” Ward stated. “As a championship driver, he does each extremely properly — delivering on monitor and locking in dedicated partnerships. He brings a champion mindset to what we’re doing, and that is racing to win championships whereas having enjoyable doing it. Having him on the crew as a multifaceted useful resource in his adviser function is an enormous win for Arrow McLaren.”

Together with serving to the crew’s IndyCar program, Kanaan will likely be concerned with McLaren Racing’s heritage program.

“I am thrilled to have Tony be part of Arrow McLaren and our McLaren Racing household in a extra formalized capability,” Brown stated. “Having him round our crew and mentoring our drivers can solely make us stronger contenders.”