IndyCar: Why Conor Daly deserves a full-time ride in 2018

2016 season (continued)

It is impossible to deny the fact that Dale Coyne Racing team owner Dale Coyne is one of the best race strategists in the sport. He definitely helped Conor Daly get to the front of the field as often has he did. But unlike many of Coyne’s past drivers, Daly delivered good results on a regular basis and did not always need strategy to help get him to the front of the field.

Prior to the 2017 season when Dale Coyne Racing signed Sebastien Bourdais to replace Daly, which will be discussed later in this article, the last time that Dale Coyne guided one of his drivers to Victory Lane was at the first race of the Houston doubleheader in the 2014 season.

At that race, Carlos Huertas took the checkered flag after saving his fuel in a rain-shortened street course races. However, unlike Daly, who racked up five top 6 finishes in an 11-race span driving for Dale Coyne Racing, Huertas had no other top 7 finishes in his other 20 career IndyCar Series races driving for the team.

Again, Daly did what many of team team’s past drivers could not do — consistently get to the front.

In the 2016 season, Daly won the Tag Heuer “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” Award, which is awarded to the driver who advances the most positions relative to their starting positions over the course of the season, and he won it as a rookie.

Daly finished 2nd place in the 2016 Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings behind only Indianapolis 500 champion Alexander Rossi, who he can now be seen competing with in the 30th season of CBS’s The Amazing Race on Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm ET.