Mouser celebrates Tony Kanaan’s Indy 500 win

Racing fans mixed with employees on the front lawn of Mouser’s Mansfield-based headquarters to see race car driver Tony Kanaan be presented with a key to the city and be told that that day, June 6, would from here on out be known as “Tony Kanaan Day”. 

 
After flight delay issues, race car driver Tony Kanaan made up for lost time by arriving at Mouser’s headquarters via helicopter.

The outdoor presentation and ceremony followed Kanaan’s recent victory at the Indy 500, where he drove his Mouser-sponsored vehicle to victory lane, his first win at the event in twelve years. 

 Kanaan drinks milk on stage during the ceremony, a tradition for Indy500 racers to do following victory at the speedway.

“We are so proud of Tony that we wanted to give him a special welcome. He has been trying for 12 years to win the Indy 500,” said Glenn Smith, Mouser President and CEO. “We wanted our employees and racing fans in the community to be able to cheer him on in person.” 

 
Kanaan, holding the key, stands on stage with his wife Lauren, Mansfield mayor David Cook, and Mouser President, Glenn Smith.

Mouser is an official partner of the 2013 KV Racing Technology #11 IZOD IndyCar Series team. The company first sponsored IndyCar in 2011, seeing it as an innovative way to communicate the company’s performance-driven business model and promote the newest technologies and how they affect the high-tech world of IndyCar racing. 

 A close-up of Kanaan’s 2012 vehicle, which was on display during the ceremony.

As you can tell by the images above, the day was a wonderful celebration, filled with many smiles and high fives. It is both the company’s hope as well as Kanaan’s that there are many similar events to come — the IndyCar series next travels June 15 to the Milwaukee IndyFest, a race that has been good to Kanaan in the past: He won two in a row at Milwaukee in 2006-07 and placed second there last year.

For those interested in the sport, there are exclusive prizes to be won via the Mouser 500 Engineering Challenge. Racing fans and design engineers alike are encouraged to learn more by visiting http://www.mouser.com/500challenge_2013/.

Since this is a technology-based website, we do have to ask the question: what do you think of the future sport? In particular, with the advancement of electric car technology that we are seeing from the likes of Tesla motors, et al, do you think there will ever be a day in which electric cars race in 500 mile events in?

And if so, do you think it will be as exciting as cars with internal combustion engine? Let us know in the comment section below!