Q&A with Conor Daly

Conor Daly

THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everyone, to today's IndyCar media teleconference. We're pleased to be joined today by Conor Daly, who will make his debut as driver of the No. 5 Arrow Lucas Oil car for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports this weekend during the Chevrolet Duel in Detroit at the raceway at Belle Isle Park.

Welcome to the call.

CONOR DALY: Thank you very much.

THE MODERATOR: This weekend will mark the third event for Conor in the Verizon IndyCar Series. He made his season debut as a last-minute call-up for Dale Coyne Racing at Long Beach. Finished a very respectable 17th having not had a lot of track time. Last Sunday competed for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in the Indy 500.

Conor, talk about the opportunity to fill in for James Hinchcliffe in the No. 5 car this weekend. I know it's not the way you want to get back in the series.

CONOR DALY: Yeah, honestly you hate to see another driver hurt, especially a close friend. But in the end he is going to recover. He's doing well. He's out of the hospital now.

I'm actually going over to his house after this to start talking about Detroit. Yeah, I mean, excited for the opportunity. It's one of those things that you always have to be ready for.

I think Sam and the team have faith in me since we tested together in early February, mid February. It will be nice to have a proper shot at a road course, even though there's only one practice but two races.

Definitely a good amount of time to get into it and hopefully have two good, solid races.

THE MODERATOR: How different is it for you to actually have a road course weekend where you know you're going to be in the car every session as opposed to what happened at Long Beach?

CONOR DALY: Well, it's certainly a lot nicer. I'm getting to do preparation at the shop this week, looking at videos, doing pre-event reports, all that stuff. I actually feel like a racing driver heading up to an IndyCar weekend, a road course finally.

Just excited to do the best I can do with it. You never know what will happen. Obviously I'd like to be a full-time IndyCar driver. These shots that I'm getting are very sporadic, sort of strange situations. But you never know when you will get a shot. You have to absolutely take full advantage of it. I have to do that this weekend.

THE MODERATOR: Belle Isle is a new track for you in IndyCar. It's a street circuit. You've typically done well in street races in other categories. What do you know about the raceway.

CONOR DALY: I got to drive (indiscernible) cars there and two-seaters. I have a decent idea of the track.

I actually thought it was really fun the last two years. I know it's a good circuit for racing. Should give us a good, competitive opportunity. We'll just have to sort through the car in the first practice session.

Obviously the first time I got to try the red tires was in Long Beach, and this will be my second time. Hopefully I can use some of what I learned in Long Beach to start a little bit further up than we did in Long Beach and give us a shot at having a good result.

THE MODERATOR: Talk a little bit about your experience with Schmidt at the Indy 500. I know the race didn't end the way you wanted it to. How much of a help will that be for this weekend in Detroit?

CONOR DALY: Obviously it's a month long of work, a month to work with the team. Definitely got some time with all the engineers, including Al McDonald, who will be my engineer this weekend.

It's a great environment to be involved in. Excited to just continue that. It always helps to have continuity in the team.

I'd love to be able to continue on after Detroit, as well, if we all develop a good relationship and a good feel for the car. But obviously right now we're taking it one day at a time, get after it in Detroit.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Conor Daly.

Good to see you getting behind the wheel again in Detroit. You mentioned how it's one practice session but two races. How do you look to approach the race weekend? Will you look to be more aggressive in race one or just put it out there and see what you can do on Saturday and Sunday?

CONOR DALY: I think we have to look at it as Sunday is really our race. Saturday will be very much still a learning experience. Obviously you never know what will happen. There could be strategies we could take advantage of, stuff like that.

But I think ideally the goal would be to end up in a competitive position Sunday putting everything we've learned together through Friday, through Saturday, then show up to the qualifying session Sunday morning pretty close to the pace, and hopefully be able to deliver on what we've learned all weekend.

What has James Hinchcliffe told you heading into this weekend? What is the advice you've gotten from him so far?

CONOR DALY: I went to see him two days ago, Monday. I went to see him Monday. Showed up there, he was looking great.

We just kind of talked for a little bit about what was going to happen for the rest of the season. He actually kind of assumed I would be in for the rest of the season. But there's obviously a lot to sort out on that side of it.

I'll go over to his house tonight to talk about Detroit. I know he got home last night. I texted him. It was a bit too late. I'll go over there after I meet with Bob Perona, our driver coach, and try to get prepared as best as possible.

Is there added pressure because basically you're auditioning each time you get behind the wheel? How much added pressure is there on you for this weekend?

CONOR DALY: For sure there's pressure. I mean, there's pressure every time you get into a car. It's been one of those situations where this year, if you would have asked me four months ago, would I be ready to start my third IndyCar race this season, I would have said you're crazy.

Obviously very happy to have these opportunities. But you are exactly right, they are auditions. I still don't think team owners trust young drivers yet to truly jump in for pure opportunities like this one. So I'd love to be able to continue to not only strengthen my profile in the IndyCar Series, but give a chance for any other young driver, that if an opportunity comes up like this, team owners aren't afraid to give the up-and-coming drivers a shot.

How much of a gain do you think you have being able to run multiple races with the same team running into Belle Isle?

CONOR DALY: I've already got a good relationship with those guys. They sort of know me, especially from the test earlier in the season.

But no matter what, it's so much better than kind of jumping into a totally new environment where you have to meet everyone new, don't know everybody's name before you get to the race.

A lot of guys I've worked with before on the team. It will be great to get to a road course, properly be prepared, start from the first green flag in practice and get to work.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Conor, for your time. We wish you the best of luck this weekend at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park.

CONOR DALY: Awesome. Thanks, guys.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everybody, for joining us today.