Tony Kanaan finished third at Watkins Glen after tackling one of the tougher courses on the IndyCar schedule with what he believes is a fractured wrist, but is determined to keep capitalising on a rare slip-up by championship leader Scott Dixon this weekend in Nashville.

The Brazilian arrived at the Glen having finally broken his duck for the season with victory in Richmond, but almost missed the race after crashing in warm-up and badly injuring his wrist.

"I think we had a suspension failure, which caught me by surprise and hurt my wrist a little bit," he confirmed, "It's a distraction, not a nice feeling, as it's a wrist that has been broken twice. It probably hates me right now."

Although medical staff questioned Kanaan's self-diagnosis, the Brazilian admitted that the injury had made the race harder for him, even if he didn't reckon that his Andretti Green Racing entry had the beating of either race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay or runner-up Darren Manning on a day of surprises.

"I don't think I had enough, even with my wrist being okay, for Darren or for Hunter‑Reay," he reflected, "I mean, Darren was pretty strong at the end, Ryan as well and I was losing a little bit in the high-speed corners because I couldn't turn. But I don't think I had a better car than [they] did - I probably could put a little more pressure on [them], but I don't think I could have passed, so I'll take third place.

"And let's not say 'broken wrist', otherwise [Dr Terry] Trammell's going to try to operate on me tomorrow! I don't want to do that, so it's fractured, maybe. It's a wrist that has already got 14 screws in it - it's been operated twice. Now it's a really sharp pain on the outside bone so, basically, [it hurts] every time I turn to the right. It's like somebody's really putting a needle inside my wrist. That was the pain that I had all race, so I was really happy for all those yellows, trust me. I was even warming my tyres at one point, thinking it was painful."

Kanaan admitted that, after the accident, he had not expected to be in a position to make inroads into Dixon's points lead, hence his satisfaction with third after the Kiwi had made a mistake behind the safety car and dented both his hopes and those of fellow frontrunner Ryan Briscoe. With Dan Wheldon and Helio Castroneves also suffering problems, Kanaan was the only member of the series' top four to score serious points at the Glen.

"Like I said, I don't think we had the right car to win the race today, even if I was 100 per cent but, if you asked me if I was expecting to finish third today, I would say no. I didn't even know if I was going to continue the race," he maintained, "It's worse than second, and worse than first but, sometimes, you've got to be smart about it. That's the way we won the championship and, for that, I was extremely happy shooting third here.

"Somebody else asked me if I was happy about [Dixon hitting trouble]. I should never be happy about what happens like that but, if I had to look at Dixon right now, I would say it was a trade from Homestead. I don't think they're that upset when I drop out, so....