WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The odds of Tony Kanaan returning to a Chip Ganassi Racing car next season are slim.

After recently declaring himself a free agent and getting into a tiff with his boss at Gateway Motorsports Park when team owner Chip Ganassi pulled a lapped Kanaan off the track, the 20-year veteran’s last ride in the No. 10 car likely will come two weeks from now in Sonoma, Calif. That will be the Verizon IndyCar Series’ season finale.

But that doesn’t mean Kanaan — and Max Chilton, who had a similar run-in with his boss at Pocono Raceway — are going to finish the year sulking.

That’s not what professionals do, Kanaan said.

“You have a boss, and sometimes he makes decisions, and you have to respect those decisions,” Kanaan said Friday evening after practice at Watkins Glen International.

“I don’t have an explanation for you for what happened. But I’ll say that I shouldn’t have put myself in that position. If I hadn’t crashed on the parade lap, that wouldn’t have happened. … So all I can say is that I respect his decision.”

The 42-year-old Brazilian, who brings with him significant sponsorship, declared with confidence that he will be back in IndyCar next season.

He’s not saying where that will be, though he was happy to provide a few tantalizing hints.

“I’m in negotiations with a few teams,” Kanaan said, with a smile. “If you look around, it’s easy to figure out. There’s a lot of push from Honda. They’ve been good partners for me for (a) long time. … I would also like to have a strong teammate, so I think that answers a lot of your questions.”

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Let’s play along with Kanaan for a moment.

There are five Honda-powered teams in the series, and two of them don’t appear to be fits. A return to CGR seems extremely unlikely and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing recently tasked Takuma Sato to join Graham Rahal in their newly formed two-car garage.

That leaves only Andretti Autosport (for whom he drove from 2003-10), Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Dale Coyne Racing, all of whom have potential openings and could allow Kanaan to pair with some strong teammates.

Of course, Kanaan didn’t entirely rule out driving for Chevrolet, so … which way is he headed? He either doesn’t know yet or isn’t telling, but he hopes to have everything locked up soon.

“If it were up to me, I’d like to know tomorrow,” Kanaan said. “But it’s not up to me. … I would say I’d like to reach a deal in the next two weeks.”

The most important thing now, Kanaan said, is to move on and do everything he can to help his teammate and friend Scott Dixon win his fifth career series championship. Kanaan said his No. 1 priority this weekend is to finish ahead of as many Team Penske cars as he can and try to take points from leader Josef Newgarden, as well as the two drivers, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud — chasing Dixon, currently in second place.

That goal, CGR Managing Director Mike Hull said, is what will unify the team this weekend — even after a pair of frustrating weeks.

“When times get tough, people pull together,” Hull said. “In this sport, there (are) a lot of people working together, and we don’t get along with each other every day. But we work together. We sort out our issues internally and concentrate on the job at hand, which is to get our four drivers the maximum result at Watkins Glen and at the same time, try to achieve for Scott Dixon what would be a very significant accomplishment.”

Chilton, excited to race at what he called his favorite North American track, also was uninterested in living in the past — or discussing the future much for that matter.

“None of that stuff affects the boys’ opinion,” Chilton said of his No. 8 car team. “Car’s quick, and that’s all that matters.”

As for next year, “I don’t know what I’m doing yet. Don’t know if I’ll be in America or not. Just lots to decide.”

Ayello writes for the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network.