Tony Kanaan may be preparing to run his last Indianapolis 500, but he’s not going anywhere. There’s a childhood pact to fulfill.

“Helio? They’re going to have to fire him. He’s not going to make the decision I made,” says Kanaan, sitting next to Helio Castroneves, his childhood friend of nearly 40 years, while looking out across the 300 acres of the Racing Capital of the World that for both 48-year-old Brazilians, against all odds, might as well be home. “It’s not happening. They’re going to have to go and say, ‘Hey, Helio, I’m sorry, we don’t have a car for you to drive,’ and then he’s still going to go try and find something.

“How many 500s? As many as people give him. And if he wins five, he’s going to go, ‘Well guys, I’ve got to go for six!’”

The four-time winner of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing has the energy to outlast the bubbly Pato O’Ward half his age, the smile to light up the scoring pylon over his shoulder and a head of hair that still has Kanaan jealous.

However many more 500s Castroneves is running, expect Kanaan to be attached to his hip, just as they were growing up around Brazil’s go-kart tracks while they crashed on each other’s couches on race weekends, trading stories and dreams into the wee hours as they polished their helmets and wondered, What if?

It was a jovial, true, honest friendship they shared back then, but with one undercurrent of curiosity.

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Neither had any real faith, as talented as they knew each other was, that there was room for two young drivers from Brazil to reach the top of the open-wheel racing ranks of Europe or the U.S.

“I knew, coming from the countryside, and he’s the city guy who, unfortunately, lost his dad when he was really young; he grew up in a way where he had to roll up his sleeves and just keep things going. For me, it was great to have him around, because I had to follow him in that direction,” Castroneves said of Kanaan. “He was always keeping me company and helping me, psychologically, to keep it going in the tough times.”

Kanaan added: “I remember it vividly at my house in Sao Paolo in my bedroom; Helio would sleep over for the races, and we used to grab our helmets and clean them before the race to have them ready and talk about it. ‘If you make it, you’re going to hire me, and if I make it, I’m going to hire you. We’re always going to hang.’”

'They're going to kill each other, but in a good way'

As they turned 20, Castroneves was running British Formula 3 and Kanaan in the Italian series of the same level. Both produced modest, top-5 championship results, but nothing that was going to forge a Formula 1 career. Kanaan was the first to begin carving out a path towards Indy Lights, landing one of 10 coveted spots in a test for a pair of rides for Tasman Motorsports in 1996. Through his connections with Philip Morris, which would be sponsoring the team, Castroneves got wind of it, too.

“I’d just spent my first year (in Europe) and I wanted to keep going. I didn’t want to switch again, but I called Tony and asked if he thought I should do this. He said, ‘Yeah, man, come on over. Whatever happens, at least you’ll drive a better car than what you’re driving right now,’” Castroneves said.

“But unfortunately, I was go-karting back in Brazil, and I hurt my ribs, and I only ever told Tony.”

The pain was excruciating, to the level where Castroneves nearly called things off, but he showed up at Phoenix Raceway and made sure he’d be the last one in line to drive each day.

“Knowing him, I know he was going to give his life. Either that thing was going to be the first- or second-fastest, or it was going to come out without a single wheel on it,” Kanaan said. “That’s why he drove it last!”

Castroneves could only do a couple laps at a time with the pain. “(But) he was the only guy that could match my lap times,” said Kanaan, who paced each day of testing. “He’d get out of the car, and he was crying – I’m kidding – but he was really hurting.

“And (team owner Steve Horne) was like, ‘Woah, wait a second.’”

Horne carved out a third seat for Castroenves, who in fact, was third-fastest among the 10. Perhaps his injury, and his performance in spite of it, worked to his favor.

“It was a good trick!” Kanaan laughed.

Shouted Castroneves: “It wasn’t a trick!”

Kanaan: “Steve was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to have this guy.’ He made such a good impression, and Steve could tell how we interacted. He was smart, very smart. He had the vision. ‘They’re going to kill each other, but in a good way, and they’re going to deliver it.’”

Castroneves: “And that’s what happened.”

Living off potato chips and buying motorbikes

Kanaan, 21, and Castroneves, 20, moved to the buzzing metropolis of Columbus, Ohio, where they rented apartments across the bridge from each other but hardly spent any time apart. Horne made sure the pair traveled together, shared rental cars – even hotel rooms.

“I was always, you know, ‘We’re here, we’re racing’,” Castroneves says as he mimics a whistling tune, “And (Tony) was always mad. ‘Why are you happy?!’ ’Well, we’re happy because we’re racing, right?’”

Kanaan: “I’m not a morning person.”

Castroneves: “He’s definitely not.”

Kanaan: “I’m okay, it’s not that I’m in a bad mood. It’s that I’m a quiet person in the morning, and he’s on the rev limiter. ‘It’s a beautiful day, yeahhhhhh! It’s race day, yeah, yeahhh, yeahhhhhh!’ I’m like, ‘Leave me alone.’”

Castroneves: “I want to start the morning like that because I know that I can carry it throughout the day. If I start like him, I’ll just go downhill.”

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Early-on, Castroneves invited Kanaan over for dinner. The latter brought a chicken – “A beautiful chicken” – but when Castroneves pulled it out of the oven, it was practically still clucking.

“It was so raw,” the failed chef says now.

Said Kanaan: “I thought it was still alive. I’m surprised we didn’t hear it scream!”

They went to McDonald’s instead.

After a year, they shared a mutual realization that Columbus, for a pair of 20-somethings, wasn’t the right fit for the cosmopolitan racecar drivers. Castroneves was already jet-setting back-and-forth between Miami, often staying at a spare house of one of his sponsors – to Kanaan’s insane jealousy.

So, they wondered, why can’t we move?

Castroneves: “But he didn’t want to talk to Steve.”

Kanaan: “I was such a chicken. He said, ‘Let’s just talk to Steve!’ but I knew Steve had told us we needed to live here. I said, ‘I’m not talking. You talk,’ and I’m still bad at that.”

Castroneves broke the ice, and their boss relented, except, “He said, ‘If you want to live in Miami, you’re going to have to pay for your travel. I’m not paying for that.’”

The thought of it now has Castroneves almost falling out of his chair.

“We were like, ‘So … what do we do now?’” Kanaan remembers thinking. “’We had no money. We used to get the per diem from the team, and we were so cheap, we wouldn’t have dinner. We would get to the hotel, go to the (vending) machine…”

Castroneves: “And eat potato chips.”

Kanaan: “It was chips and a drink, save $20.”

So, of course, what did they do when they finally hit it big with prize money from a 1^st or 2^nd-place?

“The first time we finished 1-2 that year, and we got $5,000 each, we went to the store and bought a motor bike!” Kanaan said. “And we brought it to the shop and Steve was beside himself. ‘What the (expletive) is that?!’

“’It’s a bike!’

Horne: “How much was that?"

Kanaan: “'Five grand.'

“And Helio, remember, you didn’t know about the taxes? It was $4,999 and he goes to the guy with $5,000 and says, ‘Here!’ and the guy is asking for more. ‘No, you said $4,999!’

“’No, sir, there’s tax.’

“’What is that??’”

'We always care about each other'

Like he did in go-karts, Kanaan adjusted better on the fly that first season, taking 2^nd in the championship with five podiums in 12 races, while Castroneves finished with three, in 7^th. It was always understood both drivers’ deals were to be for two years, for better or worse.

“And when we signed the contracts, (Steve) looked at both of us and said, ‘One of you guys is going to make it to IndyCar. Only one,’” Kanaan said in 2017. “You learn the first year, but if you don’t win the championship, one or both of you are going back to Brazil.’”

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So imagine the pressure Kanaan felt heading into that season-finale at Fontana with an 11-point lead on 2nd-place Castroneves.

“Stressful,” said Castroneves. Kanaan added: “That was the worst time in my life. I’m going against my best friend.”

Castroneves: “And there were times in the race, where I was actually leading the championship.”

Kanaan: “There’s the whole race going on, and then there’s the math, and you have to choose to be selfish, and it was breaking my heart, because at that point, we truly did believe that only one of us was going to get hired.”

By the checkered flag, Castroneves had to settle for fifth, with Kanaan 9^th and the owner of a four-point cushion that sealed his rookie CART ride in 1998 with Tasman. He’d log five top-5s and a pair of podiums in 19 starts to finish 9^th in the championship. Castroneves again defied the odds and pieced together a ride with Bettenhausen Racing. He’d grab runner-up at Milwaukee, but otherwise ran an unceremonious rookie campaign to 17^th in the standings.

Both would bop around a bit, until they final found their seats at the top: Castroneves with Team Penske as a last-minute signing for the 2000 campaign after the death of contracted driver Greg Moore and Kanaan with Andretti Green Racing in 2003. The two young Brazilians would find almost immediate success once they shifted into what was then the Indy Racing League. Castroneves won back-to-back 500s in 2001-02 and finishing 2^nd and 3^rd, respectively, in the championship in 2002 and '03. Kanaan finished 3^rd and 2^nd in two of his first three 500s and took the 2004 championship; sealed in a season-finale at Texas with Castroneves and Kanaan finishing 1-2.

“We push each other. We want to be in front of each other, but we also care about each other,” Castroneves said. “I remember my first (win), (Tony) had a huge accident in Detroit, and I went straight to the hospital to see him. I won the race, but my friend is in the hospital. It doesn’t matter.

“It’s a rough rivalry but deep inside, we always care about each other.”

A lifelong friendship forged in conflict

And that’s what makes the nearly two years they lost in a stupid fight over an otherwise innocuous on-track incident all the more perplexing.

They remember it slightly differently. Tensions flared when Kanaan wouldn't give an inch against his lifelong friend at the 2005 finale at Chicagoland. Castroneves entered the race as the points leader but had Penske teammate Sam Hornish Jr. and the Ganassi tandem of Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon within 21 points.

At that time, running side-by-side on an oval would steal speed from the passing car and, as Castroneves remembers, he desperately needed to get by Kanaan to try and hunt down the leaders.

“I felt like I had to win the race, and those races were a lottery, and unfortunately, we got side-by-side, and I was losing time, and those guys took off,” Castroneves said. “I’m pushing (Kanaan) down to the white line, and I knew he wasn’t frustrated at all because he wasn’t in the championship battle, but he wasn’t giving me a chance.”

Castroneves would finish 4^th in the race that Wheldon won, with Hornish Jr. forcing a tiebreaker for the championship – one he would win. For Castroenves, it would be the third of seven top-3 championship finishes in a career without an Astor Cup.

Castroneves was furious with his friend, who didn't have a stake in the title race, for not leaving the leaders to decide things for themselves. “I knew what he did, and he knew, too, so I was like, ‘Okay, that’s it. We’re not going to talk anymore.’”

The cold war lasted, from September of 2006 through scores of close encounters on pitlane and photoshoots together, until May 2008.

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“He never apologized our whole friendship,” Castroneves said. “When we were young, we’d have a little fight and I’d end up saying, ‘Hey, Tony, I’m sorry, I was too hard-headed,’ because I knew he’d never apologize.’”

Said Kanaan: “It’s not that I was bad at apologizing, but I think the way we had our relationship, he’d come in and I would laugh, and he’d know things were okay. It’s kind of like, ‘I’m sorry, but not really.’ I’m not proud of what happened. Would I have done that today? Probably not. But when you’re young, you make decisions trying to impress people, and that’s a mistake that cost us (almost two years), where things were completely awkward.

“I finally said, ‘Hey man, come on. I’m sorry,’ and we cried and hugged, and it was gone.”

'We're going to push each other to the end'

And yet, if the No. 66 Chevy of Arrow McLaren and No. 06 Honda of Meyer Shank Racing find themselves at the front of the field in the 500 later this month – if Kanaan is to be believed, the final time they’ll start an IndyCar race together after 26 years together at the top of American open-wheel racing – things might go even worse.

On-track, at least.

“If it’s the last lap of the 500, there are no secrets between us," Kanaan said. "It’s going to be a problem. Probably the guy in 3^rd will win, because I know all his tricks, and he knows all mine.”

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At 48 years old, as they laugh and slap each other on the back as they relive the pain and triumph they’ve shared, there remains this innate need inside them both to be the best driver that came out of Brazil in the 90s. Neither says he wants the other’s career – Castroneves for the title he never won, Kanaan for the three more 500s that would’ve made him immortal – and Kanaan, for the record, will readily admit Castroneves topped his career from a results standpoint.

Now, for one final time, whether it’s for the win or for 14^th-place, if the ‘hillbilly’ and ‘city-slicker’ from Brazil find themselves running wheel-to-wheel May 28 with a lap or two to go, you can bet they’re going to give us one last show.

“He is and always will be my reference. We’ll be on-track, and I’ll come into the pits, and yes, I’ll look and see who’s first, but I’ll always look and see where Helio is, and if I’m ahead of him, I’m fine,” Kanaan said. “It doesn’t matter. I could be 32^nd, but if he’s 33^rd, then well…”

But then, Kanaan thinks about it a second, and there’s a difference, he realizes, if Castroneves can find a way to win historic No. 5 there will be no hard feelings in how his storybook career had to end.

“That’s what friendship is. When you love someone, you want that person to do better,” Kanaan continued. “I always say in the green room – we see each other every time – ‘If it’s not me, I want it to be you.’”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500: Castroneves, Kanaan reflect on career-long rivalry, friendship