With 110 career starts across 10 different teams, Daly has built up a reputation as a part-time specialist. That label isn’t necessarily by choice as the desire to drive full-time remains, the opportunities just have a habit of ending up that way. Since making his series debut in the 2013 Indianapolis 500, he has only contested five full-time seasons, including two - 2020 and 2021 - that were put together by running with now-defunct Carlin and Ed Carpenter Racing simultaneously.
This opportunity with JHR, which came after the team mutually parted ways with Agustin Canapino last week (LINK), returns Daly back to his roots and feature several familiar faces from his journeyman career. While he’s never previously raced for the team in North America’s premier open-wheel championship, the two were together for a magical run during the 2010 season in the Star Mazda Championship (now Indy Pro 2000), capturing seven wins, 12 podiums and nine poles across 13 races en route to title.
Although the 32-year-old Hoosier’s has only tested with the JHR once, which came two weeks ago at Gateway, site of this weekend’s race, it only furthered his belief in the team’s competitiveness.
New team, old faces
“The proof is in what the team has already done this year,” Daly said. “A lot of great qualifying performances, a lot of bad luck that they've been a victim of at times.
“Yeah, I mean, I think we have a great chance at competing. I hadn't been teammates with Romain (Grosjean) before. We definitely, at the test, pushed each other run by run. One run I'm fastest, then he goes faster, then I go faster, he goes faster. It's nice to just go to work like that.
“The reason why I'm more confident is because I've actually worked with a lot of these guys before. A lot of the engineers, especially Yves (Touron), the technical director, he was the technical director at Carlin when we were flying. I definitely have a lot of faith in those guys.
“For sure this team, I think it's looked at as an underdog, but I think there's a lot of great things going on in this race shop and with this group.
“It's a very exciting opportunity because I think there's a lot of great potential here, for sure.”
There were plenty of drivers in the talent pool to choose from as the team tried to bounce its No. 78 Chevrolet-powered entry back into the top 22 of the prized $1 million Leaders Circle battle, but co-owner Ricardo Juncos preferred to lean on Daly in large part due to their past success together.
“Even if it's true that we have options, I think Conor first of all was one of my guys,” Juncos said.
“We have a history together. He's back with us now. He did really good things when you see what he was able to do. He's talking about the different teams. It's obvious he's very good. I remember when he was doing Indy NXT (in 2011), he was leading the championship when he decided to go to Europe; he was beating Josef Newgarden.
“He's one of the good ones. I never had a doubt on him, never. We'll see now what we can do for these five races.”
"It's hard to be good"
And that synergy is part of the reason Daly sees this chance as something unique all its own, especially with more resources to prepare.
“Without a doubt, it's the most consistent opportunity I've had so if we build on something that we find at Gateway, we can probably use it,” said Daly, who has a best finish of fifth (2017) at the 1.25-mile oval based in Madison, Illinois.
“I get to go to the simulator, stuff like that, stuff that I have not done in years. That's really nice.
“But that's how you're supposed to go about doing it. You know what I mean? Use the information day to day, develop the car, then things that you learn one weekend you take to the next. Everyone else is doing that.
“This is one of the most competitive championships in the entire world. It's hard to be good. You have to have all these things going your way for that to happen.”
As for the plan of execution over the next five races, there is an obvious goal of collecting solid points rather than taking unnecessary chances.
“When it comes to goals per race, I've talked with Ricardo about this, realistically I know points are the most important thing,” Daly said.
“We want to fight at the front, but I think I would have to probably reduce the risk overall because points are most important. Obviously, we're a racing team, so we want to compete at the front, we want to do the best job that we can. I don't like setting expectations 'cause I truly don't know enough about us as a group yet until we get into a race or two, then I'll figure it out.
“But yeah, I personally hold expectations very, very high for Gateway because I know I have gone well there in the past and that we've got to test there.
“We have to go out early to qualify, but other than that I think we'll be in great shape.”
