Conor Daly has seen it all. He’s been through the highs and lows of his brief NTT INDYCAR Series career so far. He’s been chasing a steady full time seat ever since he moved back to America following a brief stint overseas. Unfortunately, weird circumstances kept getting in the way.
Over the last few years, the Indiana native has excelled in any opportunity he was given. From doing great in filling in for friend Janes Hinchcliffe in three starts at Schmidt in 2015, to shining in a Dale Coyne Racing car in 2016, to taking a rebuilding AJ Foyt Racing team to improvements in 2017 to getting Harding going in a fill in role in 2018 to giving Carlin their best finishes in 2019, he’s been fast, just needing that opportunity.
Now, he’s got it but in the most Conor Daly way possible.
Daly, drove for three different teams over the final three races last year and now has a full time schedule in 2020 — but with two different teams. He’ll drive on ovals with the exception of Indy with Carlin and everything else, including Indy with Ed Carpenter Racing.
On Saturday night, he gave Carlin their strongest showing in a while when he finished one spot behind his other boss Ed Carpenter in the Genesys 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway. The box score says Carpenter fifth and Daly sixth.
“It was an awesome night, and I knew we had a great car in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet,” Daly said. “I messed up a little bit in qualifying and just under-drove it, but we made up for it with such a great race.
“The team had great pit stops, really incredible pit stops all night. The car was fantastic to drive, and it really gave me the confidence to go forward. We made such a great improvement from last year.”
Daly, says that he had a top five car there in the end but just lost the handling over the final three laps.
“To be honest, we probably should’ve been in the top five, but we just got a little loose in those last three laps and just couldn’t hang onto it,” Daly continued. “I was driving it pretty sideways for final couple laps. I’m just super thankful to Carlin and Gallagher for giving me the opportunity to be here with the team and to be in the series. It’s such a great way to start out the championship.”
There’s 10 full time teams in the series this year. Daly, has driven for six of them now once we get to Indy and he drives for ECR. The only big ones missing is a seat at Penske or Ganassi. In two starts with Andretti, he fared well and finished 10th in last years Indy 500.
He deserves a shot and hopefully this season proves that. He’s off to a good start that’s for sure.

