NASCAR: How Dale Earnhardt Jr. saved another driver’s life
By Asher Fair
If not for former NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., Conor Daly may not be competing in today’s 105th running of the Indy 500.
NASCAR and IndyCar drivers alike know the risks they’re taking when they get behind the wheel of a stock car or an open-wheel car and compete at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour.
Never is that more true than in the Indianapolis 500, the crown jewel of the IndyCar schedule, in which 33 drivers circle the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana in open-wheel cars running in excess of 230 miles per hour.
However, if not for 15-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award winner and two-time Daytona 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr., one of those 33 drivers may not have even gotten that chance, and he would be about to find that out shortly.
Back in mid-March, Earnhardt had a Twitter exchange with Conor Daly about an interesting topic leading up to this year’s Indy 500.
Daly, who has also competed in select NASCAR races in recent years, shared on Twitter that he had toyed with the idea of riding a bison to the row-by-row driver introductions ahead of the 105th running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. He asked the Twitter world for advice.
Fortunately for Daly, Earnhardt responded just a few hours later with some advice that may just have saved his life, and the statistics on just how dangerous these animals are back him up.
So there will be no bison making a cameo during Indy 500 driver introductions in a few hours.
https://twitter.com/ConorDaly22/status/1372337291046350854
And Daly can forever be grateful that he asked about it first.
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Daly is set to compete in today’s 200-lap race behind the wheel of the #47 Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing alongside full-time driver Rinus VeeKay behind the wheel of the #21 Chevrolet and team owner Ed Carpenter behind the wheel of the #20 Chevrolet.
The 29-year-old Noblesville, Indiana native crashed out of last year’s running of the race, which was his first competing for the team, and has a top finish of 10th place for Andretti Autosport in seven career Indy 500 attempts.
He is set to start today’s race in 19th place.
Tune in to NBC at 11:00 a.m. ET later this morning for the live broadcast of the 105th running of the Indy 500 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even though you won’t get to see Daly riding a bison to driver introductions.