Tony Kanaan defends IndyCar from Jeff Gordon's criticism

Curt Cavin | USA TODAY Sports

LEXINGTON, Ohio — Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan said Jeff Gordon unfairly picked on IndyCar on Friday.

At Pocono Raceway for NASCAR qualifying, Gordon compared the hefty crowd there Friday with what he saw last month (considerably fewer people) for the first IndyCar Series race at the eastern Pennsylvania track since 1989.

"I am very, very appreciative of this sport and this series that we are in because when you drive in that tunnel for an IndyCar race, and you drive in here for a NASCAR race, you get a perspective of how big our sport is," Gordon told reporters.

Kanaan read Gordon's comments in between IndyCar practices at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

"I was at the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400 (both at Indianapolis Motor Speedway)," Kanaan said. "It was the same shock to me."

The 500 crowd was three times as large as what attended last weekend's 400 — an estimated 250,000 to 80,000. Kanaan was so surprised by Gordon's comments that he asked twice about the context of them.

A transcript provided by Chevrolet clearly showed Gordon's respect for the speed of the Indy cars. But after complimenting open-wheel racing, Gordon uttered more unflattering comments about IndyCar.

"Sometimes we see the decline or something going flat and we are not seeing these grandstands filled up," Gordon said of NASCAR. "But let me tell you, go to an IndyCar race and then a month or two weeks later come back here.

"We better be very thankful for all the people we have here. It's pretty amazing."

Pocono Raceway president Brandon Igdalsky said IndyCar had "a great crowd" on July 7.

"We let (people) spread out over (the) whole stands so it looked like less," he wrote in a text Friday.

Filippi to make IndyCar debut

Luca Filippi will make his IndyCar debut when he drives the No. 98 car for Barracuda Racing on Sunday in the Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

The 27-year-old Italian earned the ride after a successful test at the 2.258-mile road course on Wednesday. Filippi previously drove in both the GP2 and the Auto GP series.

Filippi replaces Alex Tagliani, who was 21st in points through 13 races and recorded two top-10 finishes.

Barracuda Racing co-owner Bryan Herta said he was pleased with how quickly Filippi adapted to the new car during the test session. Filippi said his goal is to be competitive but isn't worried about whether the weekend will lead to more rides this season.

Filippi recorded the fifth fastest time in Friday's second practice session at Mid-Ohio.

Briefly ...

Will Power had the fastest lap of Friday's two practices (1 minute, 5.4332 seconds). ... Andretti Autosport teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay and EJ Viso had a dust-up in Friday's first practice, with Hunter-Reay pushing Viso off the track to the left. Hunter-Reay thought Viso got in his way on a hot lap. ... IndyCar will now move lapped cars to the back of the field for any restart inside the final 15 laps. Previously, the procedure was for the final 10 laps.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Curt Cavin writes for The Indianapolis Star, a property of Gannett, parent company of USA TODAY