Tony Kanaan didn’t think his newly minted IndyCar competitor Alexander Rossi was shy, exactly. No, it wasn’t that, at all.



“I thought he was a fucking asshole,” Kanaan said. “Seriously, I was like, ‘Fuck you, Alex.’ He walked and acted so confident, I’ll give that to him, but I’m like, ‘What an asshole. He doesn’t care. Fuck him.’ ”



It’s four years later now, and Kanaan and Rossi, the veteran and the fifth-year driver, are great friends. There wasn’t one moment in particular that altered the trajectory of their once-icy relationship both off the track and on, where they crossed swords several times and had words later. It built slowly, both men showing up early in the morning at PitFit Training in Indianapolis, a fitness center that specializes in motorsports performance training. It was Kanaan who broke the ice, saying “Good morning” a number of times before Rossi...