Daly Dominates at Iowa Speedway
"I'm very happy with the whole weekend," said Daly. "It was a lot of hard work that all paid off. It was great to have Rusty (Mitchell) here as well. I think it's an even better team now, and we're all going to be able to help each other improve. I was really happy with the Juncos Racing car during the race. It was a good car to drive up at the front yet again, and I think it's just a really positive sign for the future. We've been fast on road courses, street courses and ovals, so I think we can continue having results like this throughout the rest of season. I'm not going to stop, and I know the team isn't going to stop either, so hopefully we'll have some more wins coming our way."
Teammate Rusty Mitchell unfortunately did not find quite the success he was hoping for this weekend. A well-proven driver on oval tracks, Mitchell had hoped to land a spot on the podium alongside his teammate for tonight's race at Iowa Speedway. Problems during practice and qualifying sessions called for a new engine before the race, but despite the fresh engine change, Mitchell still encountered unforeseen problems with his car during the 100-lap event. The young Texan continued to overtake cars when on track, however, and ultimately finished the race in 10th position.
"It was disappointing to finish the way we finished," said Mitchell. "The guys worked really hard to get the motor changed for the race, but we still ran into some car problems. I'm confident the guys on Juncos Racing will find out what's wrong and fix it for New Jersey next weekend. On the plus side, I'm really happy for Conor and the whole team for achieving their fourth win of the season."
For her second ever oval race this weekend, Tatiana Calderon set goals for herself and accomplished every one of them. She grew in confidence and ability, made the lap times she strived for in practice and qualifying and finished all 100 laps of the race incident-free. The 17-year-old stayed consistent and clean throughout the race and finished the Pizza Ranch 100 in 12th position.
"I'm happy I finished this race," said Calderon. "I still have some work to do both on and off the track, but I learned a lot this weekend, as usual. I've learned more about the car, ovals and having confidence in fast corners-all things that will help me in the future. I'm really looking forward to being able to race on a road course again next weekend in New Jersey. New Jersey Motorsports Park is the first track we are racing on this season that I will have known beforehand since we tested on it already this year, so it should be good for me."