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IndyCar: Conor Daly lands fifth career Indianapolis 500 ride

By Asher Fair

AVONDALE, AZ - APRIL 01: Conor Daly, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda IndyCar prepares for qualifying to the Phoenix Grand Prix at Phoenix International Raceway on April 1, 2016 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
AVONDALE, AZ - APRIL 01: Conor Daly, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda IndyCar prepares for qualifying to the Phoenix Grand Prix at Phoenix International Raceway on April 1, 2016 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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IndyCar driver Conor Daly is set to drive in the Indianapolis 500 for the fifth time in his career this May for Dale Coyne Racing and Thom Burns Racing.

Full-time IndyCar team Dale Coyne Racing and Thom Burns Racing announced that they had formed a partnership to run a car in this year’s running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana at the end of May.

Driving that car, which is set to be the #17 Honda, is set to be 26-year-old Conor Daly, who does not have a full-time ride in IndyCar this season for the first time since 2015 after being replaced at A.J. Foyt Enterprises by rookie Matheus Leist for the 2018 season.

Here is a picture of the car that Daly is set to drive in Thom Burns Racing’s first IndyCar race.

Daly got his first full-time ride as the driver of the #18 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing in the 2016 season. He finished in 18th place in the championship standings with a career-high 2nd place finish at Belle Isle highlighting his season. However, he was replaced by Sebastien Bourdais in the 2017 season.

Daly then replaced Jack Hawksworth as the driver of the #4 Chevrolet (previously the #41 Honda) at A.J Foyt Enterprises in the 2017 season. Once again, he finished in 18th place in the championship standings, but his top finish w as only a 5th place effort at Gateway. Plus, there were only 18 full-time drivers in the series.

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As referenced above, Daly was replacement by Leist in the #4 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet for the 2018 season, leaving him without a full-time ride. It was speculated that he may be able to return to Dale Coyne Racing as a full-time driver, but nothing ever came of that speculation. Pietro Fittipaldi and Zachary Claman DeMelo are lined up to split time behind the wheel of the #19 Honda for the team, which was the car Daly was aiming to drive full-time.

Now, however, Daly is set to drive for the team in the 102nd running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. In four career Indianapolis 500 starts, he has just one finish in the race, with that finish being a 22nd place result in 2013 when he drove for A.J. Foyt Enterprises.

An engine failure before the 2015 Indianapolis 500 when he drove for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and crashes in the 2016 Indianapolis 500 and the 2017 Indianapolis when he drove for Dale Coyne Racing and A.J. Foyt Enterprises, respectively, prevented Daly from finishing any of his most recent three Indianapolis 500 races.

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Will Conor Daly have a breakthrough performance in the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 this May driving the #17 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing and Thom Burns Racing? Be sure to watch the race live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on ABC starting at 11:00 at ET on Sunday, May 27th.