The 24 Hours of Le Mans is part of an even larger endurance race for IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan. Since learning he would replace the injured Sebastien Bourdais in the #68 Ford GT, the Brazilian has been non-stop.

It was at this year’s Indianapolis 500 that Kanaan learned he would make his first start at Le Mans.

“Qualifying weekend of the Indy 500, on Sunday morning, I get a call from Chip (Ganassi) to go to his office,” Kanaan said. “Sunday morning is our pole day; it’s the day you qualify for the biggest race. He goes ‘how is your weekend after Texas, are you free?’ I wasn’t even thinking about Le Mans. When Seb had his accident I was more worried about him and for us I was thinking about the biggest race of the year. I was caught completely off guard.”

The choice of Kanaan as a replacement isn’t so surprising when you consider the facts: Kanaan is a Chip Ganassi driver, he has competed in the Rolex 24 at Daytona six times (winning in 2015), he has experience driving the Ford GT in a 24-hour race (Daytona), and he’s platinum-rated, which meant participation in the test day was not required.

Still, the logistics of getting Kanaan cleared and ready to race at Le Mans were quite tricky.

“The night after qualifying, I had to go to the shop in Indy,” Kanaan explained. “I qualified all day and then had to do the seat-fitting for the Ford, because the car was leaving the next morning to come here (Le Mans). I arrived at 8 p.m. that night and spent until midnight doing the seat. Then, I had to be at the racetrack at 8 a.m. to do our final session for the biggest race.”

While other Le Mans teams and drivers spent the first weekend in June at the test day, Kanaan’s IndyCar schedule had him going straight from Indianapolis to Detroit, Michigan, for the next race, a doubleheader at that! After Detroit, it was onto Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, where Kanaan finished second in a controversial race that had less than 10 cars running at the end.

“At Texas, they say ‘okay, you’ve got to leave at 7 a.m. on Sunday because you missed the ACO simulator and you have to do it on Monday as soon as you arrive,’" Kanaan said. “I finished the race around 11 p.m. Saturday night. You can imagine the adrenaline coming out of that race. I couldn’t sleep. I went to bed at 5 a.m. in the morning. I woke up at 6 a.m., because I had to leave at 7 a.m. I slept on the plane. I landed in Paris at 7:30 a.m. I drove two hours to the simulator. I spent six hours in the sim and drove two hours to Le Mans on Monday night."

A 2013 Ironman World Championship finisher, Kanaan’s rigorous training regime (which he admits has been lacking in recent weeks due to his schedule) has prepared him well not only for endurance races, but for a demanding work schedule.

“Being healthy helps keep me sane,” Kanaan said. “I started to get sick a couple weeks ago with a cold, because it’s been so flat out. Being extremely fit helps, because your body can fight back quickly and you can be good to go. For sure, my workouts are helping me quite a bit.”

Now Kanaan will work on getting his sleeping pattern in step with the Le Mans schedule, an important tip he learned from racing at Daytona.

“The biggest difference between my first one (Daytona) and the others is I never relaxed at the first one,” he recalled. “When I was out of the car, I wanted to watch my teammates. I learned that as soon as you’re out of the car, you go sleep; your job is done, let them do their jobs and come back when it’s your time. That’s something that’s helped me a lot doing the Daytona race for a couple years.”

The 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner and 2003 IndyCar Champion completed his first official Le Mans qualifying session on Thursday with strong pace. His best lap, a 3:55.059, was less than two seconds off the top LMGTE Pro time and was the third quickest of the nine Ford drivers.

Kanaan will have no time to waste after the checkered flag on Sunday. He needs to be back to the U.S. for the latest round of the IndyCar Championship June 23 – 25 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.