Conor Daly doesn’t know what next year holds, but he’s casting away all doubt that he should be a contender to remain in one of the seats at Juncos Hollinger Racing after last weekend’s performance at The Milwaukee Mile.
The 32-year-old from Noblesville, Indiana, Daly was called upon to drive JHR’s No.78 Chevrolet for the last five races after the team mutually parted ways with Agustin Canapino following a string of five consecutive finishes of 18th or worse and put the entry in doubt of making the top 22 of the $1 million Leaders Circle - sitting 23rd.
While Daly stabilized the entry through his initial two starts, notably with a 13th-place finish at Gateway, the opening race of this past weekend’s doubleheader in Milwaukee saw him surge from 25th to third. While strategy played a significant part, the pace was there throughout as he progressed early with dazzling three-wide moves from the high-line to execute a race-high 51 passes on the night.
The result was the second podium of Daly’s career, with the other happening in 2016 (Detroit, Race 1). He also delivered the best-ever result for JHR — bettering teammate Romain Grosjean’s fourth-place finish at Laguna Seca in June — with the team’s maiden IndyCar podium.
“It's really cool, especially when you get to share it with… the last podium I was on had Juan Pablo Montoya and Sebastien Bourdais; I changed my era of IndyCar drivers,” said Daly, noting race winner Pato O’Ward and runner-up Will Power.
“Yeah, kind of crazy. I honestly didn't know how good we were. The first lap I decided to just go where there was open space. Turns out that worked. Then, yeah, we just kept going. It was kind of slowly working our way forward. … Obviously we want to win and we want to compete at the front, and this team gave me the opportunity to do that.
“We thought we could do it at Gateway. That opportunity quickly came to a grinding halt. But yes, I'm thankful to be here and be back up where I dreamed of being my whole life really.”
A more permanent future for the journeyman driver?
Clutch issues hindered Daly’s second act of the doubleheader at the historic 1-mile last Sunday, relegating him to a 17th-place result. However, the body of work from the weekend elevated the entry in the all-important Leaders Circle, sitting 19th with 189 points, two points ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 66 Honda (187 points) and 14 points ahead of 22nd-place, which is occupied by the No. 41 Chevrolet of AJ Foyt Racing (175). Ed Carpenter Racing’s No. 20 Chevrolet is the first car below the cutline with 174 points.
With Daly being a key part of the rise in form with JHR, it stands to wonder if he could remain with the team after the upcoming season finale at Nashville Superspeedway on Sept. 15.
“I'd love to think so,” Daly said. “In the end, the finances are very difficult to make happen in this world. But I feel like I have a lot that I still want to do in [it]. The last couple years have been obviously really difficult for me, in the situation that I was in.
“This group around me has been just so supportive. Even after the first two races, like I said on TV, I'm sure everyone was, ‘Well, we thought it was going to be great.’
“I know I can run at the front with these guys. The car gave me the opportunity to do that. I can only do what the car will allow me to do. They gave me that chance. We made the right moves when we needed to.
“But yeah, what the future holds, I have no idea. Thankfully I got next week planned and the weekend after that. After that, we're kind of just back to the drawing board.”
