Conor Daly was Indy 500's biggest mover, hopes top-10 finish leads to more rides

INDIANAPOLIS— After receiving the congratulations of his crew, mother and stepfather, Conor Daly had every reason to be proud of his 10th-place performance in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

An off-sequence pit strategy vaulted the No. 24 DRR-Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet into the top five when the Noblesville native pitted under the race’s first caution. When the majority of the field pitted under the caution for Katherine Legge’s blown engine, Daly and the rest of the early stoppers stayed out to claim the top four positions.

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When Daly pitted, he was able to stay on the lead lap in case a yellow came out. That gamble paid off, bringing the 2010 USF Pro 2000 champion to the top of the leaderboard. As the race drew to its conclusion, however, Daly’s car did not have that last little bit of speed he needed to get him closer to the front.

“We hadn't run with (the frontrunners) the entire month, not even in practice because we were starting so far back,” Daly said. “We usually were running with the other guys, so we weren't geared long enough for when we had to trim out, so we trimmed out on the limiter in sixth (gear) when I tried to pass Scott (McLaughlin) a couple times. So that just hurt us a little bit, just kind of lacking just a little bit of speed, but the car was good.”

Daly led 22 laps on Sunday, fourth-most (behind only Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden and Sting Ray Robb).

At one point, Daly battled with the eventual race winner, Newgarden. The pair have a long history together in their careers dating back to being selected as part of the Team USA Scholarship program in 2008. The duo went side-by-side for a few corners at one point, but Newgarden got ahead of Daly in the pits in the final pit stop sequence and that’s when the race turned against Daly.

“Josef got a little bit ahead and then Scott (McLaughlin), he came out right into my lane of running and just held us up too much,” Daly said. “If we would've got Scott there, we're in the top five and we could just stay there probably. But yeah, I mean, to be in the top 10 again, I mean, I can't complain. I'm super pumped. The biggest mover, that's sweet. Got a trophy that doesn't belong to me, I don't get to keep it, but yeah, I got a free hat, so that's cool.”

Daly, who started 29th and improved 19 spots during Sunday's race, could only pose with the trophy provided by Josten’s for gaining the most positions before giving it back to an IndyCar social media representative. He didn’t get to have his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy either for winning the race, but additional seat time with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing might be a possibility if team co-owner Dennis Reinbold will agree to it.

“I've been begging (Reinbold) to do Nashville, at least the last race of the year, that’d be sweet,” Daly said. “It's a superspeedway package so I’ll see if I can convince him. If the car came back in one piece, I was hoping we could just bring it there (Nashville Superspeedway). Put it in the trailer and just drive it to Nashville. We'll see.

Reinbold would like to do more races, but the question always comes down to funding. Money is the ultimate fuel for race cars and the team has to make the numbers work.

“We've talked about things like that and it is a possibility," he said, "but we have to see how things play out after this."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Conor Daly was 2024 Indy 500's biggest mover, grabs top-10 finish