INDIANAPOLIS — After dealing with numerous pranks throughout his time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Conor Daly’s bad luck finally held off as the Noblesville, IN native earned his best finish in the Indianapolis 500 with a sixth place on Sunday (May 29).
Daly started 18th and pitted early to get on fresher tires earlier than his competitors. The strategy worked, moving the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet up to 13th after the first cycle of green flag pit stops.
After pitting again on lap 68, the 2010 Indy Pro 2000 champion then had a very lucky yellow flag come out two laps later when Callum Ilott hit the turn 2 wall. Only Daly and Dixon had made stops among all of the cars in the top half of the field, and neither car went a lap down. That allowed Dixon to resume his old position in the lead, while Daly leapfrogged several cars to go into second place.
Daly then took the lead momentarily, and all seemed right with the crowd.
Conor Daly to the lead! The @IMS crowd goes WILD. #Indy500
📺: NBC and @peacockTV pic.twitter.com/HO9nwqpX7P
— #Indy500 on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 29, 2022
“Man it was just so fun,” Daly said on pit road after the race. “I love racing here against guys like Scott (Dixon) and Pato (O’Ward), and I mean those guys are just good guys and the team did a great job. I think we did all we could today.”
As the race progressed, Daly remained in the top five and even led seven laps, but it was the last pit stop of the race that set everything up for the finish.
Daly entered the pits for his final stop in third place, running a few seconds behind race leader Scott Dixon. However, Daly’s right rear tire changer had an issue getting the old tire off of the car, costing Daly about one and a half seconds on pit road. After the entire pit stop sequence ended, Daly was in sixth place, but he lost that spot to Simon Pagenaud shortly before Jimmie Johnson‘s accident that brought out the yellow and subsequent red flag.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…