Chilton quits ovals, Daly to Compete with Carlin at Texas Motor Speedway

Conor Daly

Conor Daly will join Carlin this weekend for the ninth round of NTT IndyCar Series action at the DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. After recording a top-10 finish at the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500, Daly will bring his oval experience to pilot the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet in place of current driver Max Chilton.

Daly, who raced with Carlin in the early stages of his car racing career in Europe, is ideally placed to compete on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval following his strong month of May and past oval experience in the NTT IndyCar Series. The 27-year-old Indianapolis-based driver last raced for Carlin in 2011 in the former GP3 Series.

Speaking about the upcoming weekend Daly said, “I want to thank everyone at Carlin and Gallagher for the opportunity to get back in a race car at Texas Motor Speedway. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Carlin back in 2011 as I started my European racing journey and to now drive for them in the NTT IndyCar Series is pretty special. I look forward to being able to contribute to the team as best I can."

Chilton, who is competing in his fourth season of the NTT IndyCar Series, will not compete in the remaining four oval races of the 2019 INDYCAR season. The British driver will compete in the remaining road and street course races this season as originally planned in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet.

Chilton added, “I would like to thank Gallagher for being supportive of my decision to not compete in the remaining oval races this season – I am extremely fortunate to have such a supportive partner. Risk Management is a central consideration of both Gallagher and myself in how we operate. I’m excited and pleased by the outstanding proactive work being done by INDYCAR around driver safety and the innovation of the solution developed in partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies that has created a new aero screen. The innovative solution will be the most advanced single seater driver head protection in the world and will be introduced in 2020. My focus remains on getting the best possible results for the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin crew and I will be helping the team and Conor in any way I can to that end."

Daly will join the rest of the NTT IndyCar Series field on-track at Texas Motor Speedway starting on Thursday, June 6.