With just a few days to prepare for IndyCar's season opener, Tony Kanaan requested his crew members wear name tags.
They gladly obliged, and Kanaan hasn't stopped asking for help since. By name, of course.
Although it's been a hectic week trying to get up to speed with his thrown-together team, Kanaan feels like they are way ahead of schedule. Qualifying proved it.
Kanaan earned the eighth starting spot in Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, a solid effort considering everything started taking shape Monday.
''I'm greedy,'' said Kanaan, the 2004 series champion. ''I want to be in the top six, but to be realistic, seven days ago, I was going to sit home and watch those guys out there. I'm not going to say I'm celebrating an eighth place, but we need to go back to reality sometimes and realize where I was a week ago and where I am now.
''I'm happy. I know we have a lot of work to do. It's not time to celebrate, but I'm glad it's working our way. But it's not going to be an easy road by any means.''
Just last week, it looked like the 2004 series champion might have to sit out the 2011 season.
Andretti Autosport parted ways with Kanaan last fall after eight seasons. Kanaan won 14 races for Andretti and was in the second of a five-year deal, but was cut loose when 7-Eleven decided not to renew its sponsorship with Kanaan's green Honda.
The 36-year-old Brazilian thought he was going sign with Gil de Ferran's team, but the deal fell apart last month.
Kanaan then turned to close friend Jimmy Vasser, co-owner of KV Racing Technology. Vasser and Kanaan initially talked in November, but the timing wasn't quite right. It came together in the last two weeks, with Vasser essentially rescuing Kanaan from sitting out at least part of the season.
''Well, it was a scary moment,'' Kanaan said. ''It was beyond scary. It was desperation at the time it came.''
Kanaan's new deal includes sponsorship from Geico, which backed KV and 2003 Champ Car champion Paul Tracy at the Indy 500 last year. Vasser said Geico reconsidered leaving IndyCar when it was offered a ''value package'' because Kanaan was able to bring sponsorship from Brazilian companies.
''Tony Kanaan swings a heavy stick in the marketplace,'' Vasser said. ''I think people were very surprised that he was available.''
Kanaan gave KV Racing an experienced driver alongside teammates Takuma Sato and E.J. Viso. It also provided Lotus a former champion to put its brand behind as it expands into IndyCar. The England-based company will join Honda and Chevrolet as engine manufacturers for IndyCar in 2012.
The deal was completed Monday, and the team has been trying to catch up since. Kanaan traveled to Homestead-Miami Speedway the following day for testing and spent the rest of the week tweaking aspects of the car.
''We changed it a lot,'' Kanaan said. ''It took me a little bit to get used to it. As you get old, you get some things that you want to have no matter what. I started to ask for a couple of things that I wanted in the car, something that I know worked for me in the past. That's how we built it up the whole weekend long. Some resistance sometimes when you come in and ask for something and they're not sure. As a team, you prove them wrong, they prove you wrong and that's how we're doing it.''
Kanaan has something else to prove, too.
His former boss, Micheal Andretti, seemed to take a parting shot at Kanaan by saying he wasn't the team leader outsiders thought he was. Kanaan declined to get into a verbal sparring match. Instead, he insisted he has ''turned the page'' and wished former teammates Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay well this season.
Kanaan is fully focused on his new team, and knows that what happens on the track is all that really matters.
''A lot of work and a lot of building together,'' Kanaan said. ''It's going to take a while. One step at a time. Drivers have a tendency to not be that patient, and I'm one of them. I've got to have people reminding me every day.
''I have a couple of guys that work with me say, 'Remember four days ago?' Tomorrow, it's like, 'Remember five days ago?' We're going to keep doing that for a while until I say, 'Enough with that, let's move on.'''
