Conor Daly: Racing Journeyman Navigates The High-Speed World Of Motorsports

To say that Conor Daly has a varied motorsports resume would be quite the understatement. At 32, he’s raced everything from go-karts to open-wheel cars and stock cars. He has starts in the IndyCar series, GP2, and GP3, and in recent years, he’s added NASCAR to his racing repertoire.

Yet, Conor Daly has only managed three full-time seasons in IndyCar, those being 2016, 2017, and 2022. In between, Daly has become the ultimate journeyman driver, toting his racing helmet to any seat he can find, even if it’s just for a race or two. Recently, he was called upon to sub for an injured driver at an IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway, and this coming weekend, he’s pulling double duty in NASCAR, racing in the Truck Series on Friday night and the Xfinity race on Saturday.

Now, while Daly has the pedigree—being the son of former F1 driver Derek Daly—and the talent, the brutal truth is that obtaining and keeping a full-time role in professional racing isn’t just about skill. It’s about bringing money to the table. And that’s what keeps Conor Daly happily filling seats for race teams.

“The only reason I’m racing is not because I have been selected to participate,” he admits. “It’s like we have partnerships that have made this happen, right? … there’s money involved.”

Building those partnerships and maintaining the relationships allows Daly to secure deals to race in both IndyCar and NASCAR. His primary sponsor, Polkadot, a cryptocurrency services company, which backed him in this year’s Indianapolis 500, is also sponsoring this weekend’s Xfinity race and his next two Truck Series races.

“I mean, the only reason I essentially still have a career,” he said, “is because of the relationship building that you have to do in this sport.”

And it’s those relationships that keep Conor Daly racing, even if it’s just on a part-time, almost race-to-race basis.

“Every deal that we work on is essentially, ‘what can we do with what we have?’” he said. “So, like, ‘this is what we have right now.’”

It’s not just about securing a seat with a sponsor, but also about delivering for that sponsor on race day. In this year’s Indy 500, Daly led laps and finished 10th—a memorable day for both him and the sponsor.

“We want to try to obviously keep delivering for them as we go,” Daly said. “And then we’ll see what happens. My goal is to… strengthen one of these partnerships to the level that we can look at a couple of full-time options next year.”

“I don’t know what that is yet,” Daly added with a chuckle. “I don’t know if I ever will.”

He has raced in the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR’s Daytona 500, and continues to nurture the sponsor relationships that allow him to compete in both NASCAR and IndyCar. While his ultimate goal remains securing a full-time ride in a series, for now, Conor Daly works on keeping sponsors happy and racing wherever he can.

“I’ve been very lucky,” Daly said. “I’ve had a lot of great partners to put me in positions to do that. I’ve had a lot of great interactions in this sport. I’ve actually met a lot of fantastic people in the NASCAR realm.

“I have enjoyed working with the people that I’ve worked with… it’s a great sport, and I hope to be able to do more, but yeah, I’m here now and I know what’s happening this week and after that, who knows what else can happen.”