Highs & Lows for Conor Daly at Iowa INDYCAR 250s

Jul 19, 2020

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CONOR DALY (No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet), son of Derek Daly, the former Irish F1 & Indycar driver experienced agony and ecstacy at the Iowa INDYCAR 250s in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 0.894-mile Iowa Speedway, qualifying on pole for Race 1 and finishing 8^th, while in Race 2, he qualified third to take the chequered flag in 13^th place.

Daly’s Lap 1 speed of 175.188 mph in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet was good enough to lead the field to green tonight. His previous best starting spot was seventh on the street course in Toronto in 2016, while his previous best oval start was 11^th in 2017 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and in 2019 for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

“It’s just awesome,” said Indiana native Daly, who is splitting his season between Carlin on the ovals and Ed Carpenter Racing for the road and street courses. “I’m so thankful to have a bit of a comeback and to be driving this car. It’s all thanks to Trevor Carlin and Gallagher Insurance. “I’m just so thankful to be here. I hated this place the last few years, and now we’re on the pole. This is hilarious. We’ve got one more mission left tonight, and that’s the race. Hopefully we can execute.”

Race 1 – Qualifying, Race & Quotes

1. (59) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 175.188
   2. (1) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 175.107
   3. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 174.807
   4. (88) Colton Herta, Honda, 174.799
   5. (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 172.263
   6. (30) Takuma Sato, Honda, 172.130
   7. (10) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 172.063
   8. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 171.617
   9. (60) Jack Harvey, Honda, 171.611
   10. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 171.496

Simon Pagenaud charged from last to first to win Race 1 of the INDYCAR Iowa 250s Friday night, July 17 at Iowa Speedway. Pagenaud held off Scott Dixon by .4954 of a second for his first win of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season in the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet. Pagenaud started last in the 23-car field after a fuel pressure problem prevented him from making a qualifying attempt earlier in the day. Daly led for the first 13 laps.

Result

1. (23) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 250, Running
   2. (17) Scott Dixon, Honda, 250, Running
   3. (14) Oliver Askew, Chevrolet, 250, Running
   4. (8) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 250, Running
   5. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 250, Running
   6. (5) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 250, Running
   7. (9) Jack Harvey, Honda, 250, Running
   8. (1) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 250, Running
   9. (10) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 250, Running
   10. (6) Takuma Sato, Honda, 249, Running

8^th– CONOR DALY (No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet) commented: “It was definitely a rollercoaster of a day for us. Obviously, we were so excited to win the pole for tonight’s race in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet. That’s just such a major accomplishment for myself and this team. We’ve all been working so hard and the guys gave me a great car to qualify, so I was pretty excited that I was able to get that pole. We started the race tonight OK but just really struggled with keeping the rear underneath me and trying to figure it out as we went. It was just tough, and we just didn’t have the pace that we needed. The yellow really killed us. Some people just got so lucky with that, but unfortunately it didn’t fall our way. We chose to extend the last stint and make the tires last, but it was really tough driving absolutely to the limit on older tires and trying to hold people off there at the end. It was tough end to the day, but it was seriously awesome to get the first INDYCAR pole for both Carlin and myself, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s race where we’ll start up front again in third.”

Qualifying Friday for the Iowa INDYCAR 250s – Race 2 1. (1) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 175.333 mph 2. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 175.024 3. (59) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 174.960 4. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 174.245 5. (88) Colton Herta, Honda, 173.437 6. (60) Jack Harvey, Honda, 172.523 7. (55) Alex Palou, Honda, 172.382 8. (14) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 171.834 9. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 171.653 10. (10) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 171.336

Commenting after Race 2 CONOR DALY (Finished 13^th – No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet) said: “Tough night for us. The No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet was really strong all race, and even after we came out on the wrong side of Ed’s (Carpenter) yellow, we were still pushing up at the front, running pretty consistently in the top three. We made a strategy call there at the end to stay out under the yellow and wait to take tires until about 35 to go. Unfortunately in tonight’s race, it just wasn’t the right strategy, and we didn’t move forward like we thought we would. I’m gutted for the team because the car was great and had serious podium potential, but we just had some bad luck. Obviously, I’m still feeling good about our pole from yesterday, but it would’ve been really nice to come away with a top-three finish this weekend.”

 

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