Conor Daly has driven for Ricardo Juncos’ team before. But not like this. Daly’s car has also had wrenches turned on it by many of these same mechanics. But not in this organization.
What should be unfamiliar, instead, was familiar all along, including Daly’s bad luck.
Saturday’s (Aug. 17) Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway was another opportunity for Daly to race for yet another NTT IndyCar Series team. Juncos Hollinger Racing is the 11th different team that he’s raced for since his first IndyCar race back in 2013.
Unfamiliar organization.
Team co-owner Juncos was Daly’s car owner for the 2010 Star Mazda (now USF Pro 2000) championship which he dominated, giving Juncos his first auto racing championship.
Familiar owner.
When Trevor Carlin’s eponymously-named organization left IndyCar after the 2021 season, Juncos and new team co-owner Brad Hollinger absorbed many elements of the team, including several mechanics.
Unfamiliar organization.
Daly drove for Carlin on all the oval races in 2021 except for the Indianapolis 500 as the team’s main driver Max Chilton did not want to race on ovals except at Indianapolis.
So for Daly, his new ride at JHR was built by crew members he had worked with.
Familiar Personnel
Following some engine change penalties, Daly started ninth in the 260-lap race. However, Daly’s familiar cloud of bad luck visited the Noblesville native as he followed Rinus VeeKay through turn 2 early in the race.
“The 21 car just flat out lost it in front of me,” Daly said of VeeKay while on pit road. “And then I got, I mean, I don’t know what he was doing. The whole race, he looked like he was crashing. And then right in front of everyone that is lined up beneath him, basically half spins twice and then I got wrecked from behind. So it’s a real shame that happened. But honestly [from] then on, we were just, I mean the floor was damaged, the wing was damaged and everything. So we just basically drove around for a while and we were definitely still fast, but I mean we had no downforce and a really difficult situation.”
When VeeKay slid exiting turn 2, Daly hit the brakes. Behind him were Kyle Kirkwood and Romain Grosjean. Kirkwood slowed when he saw Daly brake but Grosjean couldn’t see VeeKay slide at the front of the line and had nowhere to go. Grosjean hit Kirkwood who then hit Daly, spinning the No. 78 Chevrolet around on the…
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