Conor Daly was parked a spot away from Jordan Taylor in the NASCAR Cup Series garage area at Circuit of The Americas in Texas last weekend.
Between practice and qualifying sessions, Daly observed as Taylor, fill-in driver for Chase Elliott, would talk over the radio with Hendrick Motorsports team members at Concord, N.C., shop to analyze data and fine-tune their approach for the next on-track session.
In comparison, Daly said, “We didn’t even have scale pads.”
With the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA marking Daly’s third excursion into the Cup Series, the NTT IndyCar Series regular feels he’s been around long enough to pick up on a few trends in the NASCAR garage. The amount of communication that occurs between the crew on-the-ground and the team back at headquarters was one factor that didn’t originally cross his mind.
“We are operating at a much smaller scale than these groups and it is very, very difficult in the Cup Series,” Daly admitted. “But it’s just part of where we’re at right now.”
Daly drives the No. 50 Chevrolet for The Money Team Racing. Owned by championship boxer Floyd Mayweather, TMT Racing is a small operation that has only six starts to its credit. The 31-year-old Daly has been the driver for three of those starts.
Despite realizing TMT Racing may be at a slight disadvantage when it comes to competing against full-blown operations such as Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske, Daly believes the team has made substantial progress.
For one, they finally completed all practice and qualifying sessions leading up to the 68-lap, 231-mile race at COTA last weekend.
During Daly’s debut at the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway last September, he only made six practice laps and did not appear for qualifying. At the Daytona 500 earlier this year, he was unable to turn a qualifying lap due to an electrical problem.
As Daly lined up alongside Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland in the 35th starting position during Sunday’s race, his prospects were looking up, bolstered by the fair number of laps he’d logged during practice and qualifying.
“I just started to feel like we got the car underneath us after the first stint and we started moving forward,” Daly relayed. “It felt like we had a racy opportunity of getting through the pack.”
However, trouble struck Daly on lap 16 as his No. 50 entry suffered a transmission failure. The TMT Racing driver finished 36th.
Still, Daly remains encouraged. He’s labeled COTA as a “weekend of progress,” fully aware that his aspirations in the Cup Series need to remain realistic for now — his lifelong dreams of reaching victory lane will have to wait.
Daly has a very different mindset heading into this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
He will wheel the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing entry in Sunday’s PPG 375 — the second event of the IndyCar season.
While he’s yet to win at the 1.5-mile oval, he’s finished in the top 10 in two of his seven starts at the facility. Daly also led laps at the track during his rookie year, providing a few fond memories for him to reflect upon.
Though some might find it odd to adjust from driving NASCAR’s Next Gen car to an Indy car from one week to the next, Daly has found it easy to separate the two.
“It’s a completely different world,” Daly said. “None of what I use in NASCAR, other than the physical turning of the wheel and pressing the pedals, will be similar to what I’ll go out and do at Texas Motor Speedway.”
The only similarity: “Both cars are very hot inside.”
As the last Indy car race was nearly a month ago at St. Petersburg, he’s optimistic the extra seat time will nonetheless help him get back into race form for this weekend. Notably, Daly will be the first driver to wheel an entry in both the NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA and the NTT IndyCar Series event at Texas Motor Speedway.
“I think we’re looking for a little more overall speed in general, but we go into this weekend looking to be on the podium. None of us are going there just to be in the top 10,” Daly said.
“I really want to come out of Texas with a trophy.”