Noblesville’s own Conor Daly rises from 16th to spot in Top 10
By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
SPEEDWAY – Conor Daly has come a long way at the Indianapolis 500.
The veteran driver from Noblesville has gone from having early struggles at the race to notching his second consecutive top 10 finish at the 500. Driving for Ed Carpenter Racing, Daly finished eighth Sunday at the Indy 500, running consistently throughout the chaos of the second half of the race.
Daly finished 1.8855 seconds behind race-winner Josef Newgarden, and was running seventh during multiple times. Daly started from the 16th position and worked his way up into the top 10 by the 105th lap, where he stayed until the checkered flag, holding on to eighth despite the series of red flags and re-starts during the last few laps of the race.
“It was just really tough,” said Daly. “It was tough to take because I knew we were better than where we ended up. We don’t come here to lose, so it’s just really tough to take.”
Back-to-back top 10s at the Indy 500 is a great accomplishment. But after the race, there was a sense of disappointment from Daly. After competing here for 10 years, Daly wants to win.
“We want to be a little bit better, for sure,” said Daly, who also said that his car is probably “one of the best race cars. We’ve done a great job, my engineer and I, to get ourselves there and feel confident with the race. We just want to win.” Daly said he’s “happy with the guys and happy with the pit stops. We just didn’t have what we needed today.”
“Clearly he did a pretty good job,” said Carpenter. “We had two cars in the top 10 and he was our top car for the second straight year. Happy he did his job out there. I thought all three of our cars were really good.”
Rinus VeeKay finished in 10th place, while Carpenter himself finished in 20th place.
Daly debuted at the 500 back in 2013 and finished 22nd. After not competing in the 2014 race, he has run in every Indy 500 since 2015. While his first few races ended early, Daly has now collected three top 10 finishes (he placed 10th in 2019).
“You get closer,” said Daly. “You get closer to tasting that success and you want it so bad. And you see a guy like Josef, who’s a fantastic champion. He’s struggled here for years, and he had a great day and he made it happen. All we can ask for is a chance. The red flags made it a bit crazy. But I think our car was great, and sometimes you have it and sometimes it’s just a little bit off.”