2019 Indy 500: Conor Daly seeking to take advantage of best opportunity yet

Conor Daly has never had an opportunity in his IndyCar career as good as the one that he is set to have in Sunday’s Indy 500.

Conor Daly has competed in a total of 43 IndyCar races since his career in the sport began back in the 2013 season. In the 2016 and 2017 seasons, he competed in the sport on a full-time basis.

However, never before has the 27-year-old Noblesville, Indiana native had the opportunity to drive for a top-tier team. He made his IndyCar debut in the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500 back in 2013, and he drove for A.J. Foyt Enterprises in that race.

Daly drove in one race for Dale Coyne Racing in the 2015 season before serving as the replacement for the injured James Hinchcliffe at Schmidt Peterson Motorsport in four races throughout the remainder of the season.

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In the 2016 season, Daly drove full-time for Dale Coyne Racing, and in the 2017 season, he drove full-time for A.J. Foyt Enterprises. In the 2018 season, he drove for Dale Coyne Racing dba Thom Burns Racing in the Indy 500 before driving for Harding Racing in three races throughout the remainder of the season.

Daly has managed to rack up a few solid results despite the fact that he has never driven for a top-tier team. He finished in sixth place in one of the races on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan as Hinchcliffe’s replacement in the 2015 season, and he recorded five top 10 finishes, all top six finishes, in the 16-race 2016 season, including a career-high second place finish in one of the races on the streets of Belle Isle.

In the 17-race 2017 season, Daly recorded four more top 10 finishes, including a season-high fifth place finish in the race at Gateway Motorsports Park.

But in his second consecutive season without a full-time ride in IndyCar, he has landed the best opportunity of his career in the form of an Indy 500 ride.

Daly is set to drive the #25 Andretti Autosport Honda in this Sunday’s 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana, and he qualified for this race in 11th place after never qualifying higher than 23rd for any of his previous Indy 500 starts.

Driving for the team that have won three of the last five editions of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and for a team that have shown great speed leading up to this Sunday’s race, this is by far the best opportunity of Daly’s career, and it is his opportunity to show that he still deserves to be a full-time driver in this series, and for a good team to boot.

In his five Indy 500 starts, Daly has only actually started the race four times, as an engine failure prevented him from taking the green flag in the 99th running of the race back in 2015. In his four official starts, he has finished the race twice, and his better finish is the 21st place finish that he recorded in last year’s running of the race.

Daly will be looking to shatter that top finish this season driving for one of IndyCar’s top teams, preferably with a victory, and he has what it takes to pull it off.

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Will Conor Daly take advantage of the best opportunity that he has had in his IndyCar career by winning the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 this Sunday, May 26? Tune in to NBC at 11:00 a.m. ET for the live broadcast of the race from Indianapolis Motor Speedway to find out. The race is scheduled to get underway slightly after 12:30 p.m. ET later that afternoon.