Kanaan to be released from hospital tomorrow

The Mo Nunn Racing driver crashed heavily in qualifying at Detroit yesterday, breaking his left forearm in two places, cracking four ribs and sustaining mild concussion.

Doctors now believe that his recovery will take between four and six weeks, meaning he will be out of action until the Lexington round of the championship in August.

"Every indication, from what we have seen of the racecar, is that he clipped the inside wall with his right-front wheel," said team boss Mo Nunn.

"We found pieces of a banner in the wheel and that was the only indication of contact on that side of the car, and it appears he then was thrown across the track into the outside wall. We'll have to look closely at the data before we can try and determine what might have gone wrong.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Tony, and we hope for his speedy recovery. He's a very determined young man and we have every confidence he will be back at 100 percent before too long.

"The doctors said he was in considerable pain, but that he is in very good hands."

Kanaan was fastest in his group at the time of the shunt. After a poor first day he had looked set for an extremely competitive performance, sixth fastest in pre-qualifying practice and by far the best Mercedes runner.

Mo Nunn will now have to find a replacement driver for next weekend's race at Portland. Early season speculation suggested that Alex Zanardi was keen to return to CART at some point if Nunn, his former race engineer at Ganassi, could find the money to run a second car, but a more likely substitute is Memo Gidley. The American driver impressed while subbing for the injured Patrick Carpentier in the Player's/Forsythe team earlier this season and has already been in contact with Nunn's team.