"I guess he's human, isn't he? The guy is having a fantastic year - you'd think he has some extra power from another planet or something - and you don't know when he's going to have a bad day, but there you go.

"I was surprised but, you know what, the way we all warm our tyres, it can catch you by surprise. Obviously, he's not going to forgive himself for that. I think it's going to be tough [to win the title]. I'm still 66 points behind but, you know, it was really good before I came here, so we're on the way. We're on the way back."

Nashville this weekend marks a brief return to the ovals before the schedule takes in more road and street courses, and Kanaan is wary about his prospects about taking more points out of Dixon's advantage on a track that has never really delivered for him

"Unfortunately, we didn't have a very good race at Nashville last year, but the Team 7-Eleven car has been strong this year, and we made up a lot of points at Watkins Glen," he noted, "We know that we have to win races if we expect to win the championship, so we're going to keep pushing and hope that our luck has finally changed."