Conor Daly gives heartfelt life update amid challenging IndyCar season

Conor Daly has given a genuine life update ahead of IndyCar's upcoming race weekend at Mid-Ohio. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver is having a trying first season with the team, which was in danger of ending even before the season started.

Daly lost a $3.5 million sponsor a month before the 2025 IndyCar season started. This cast dark clouds over the start of his first full-time season in three years. However, the racing veteran found a new sponsor, Union 76 Gas Stations. With the financial side adequately taken care of, Conor Daly shifted focus to impressing in his first season with JHR.

So far, he has secured only two Top 10 finishes in nine races. However, in both those instances, which included the 109th Indy 500, he could've been a contender for victory if it weren't for unexpected tire issues on his car.

In a recent update on social media, Daly shared he took his first vacation in a long time during this tiring season. He shared a photo with his girlfriend, Amymarie Gaertner, from their time in Hawaii, on X, writing:

"Greetings folks, I’ve been on vacation. Something I haven’t done in a long time. It was sweet. No @SpeedStreetPod this week as I’ve truly been away from the world and been traveling back when we normally record. We’ll be back after Mid Ohio this weekend! #indycar"

Conor Daly releases a new episode of his Speed Street podcast every Wednesday. With nothing recorded for this week, the next episode will drop on July 9 after the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio is done and dusted.

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Conor Daly apologizes to Juncos Hollinger Racing after a bad race at Road America

Conor Daly at IndyCar XPEL Grand Prix at Road America - Source: Getty

Conor Daly had an eventful day at the previous IndyCar race, the 2025 XPEL Grand Prix at Road America. He started in a lowly 21st place. On lap 22 of 55, the No. 76 Chevy driver ran off the track and into the gravel trap after overtaking David Malukas at Turn 5.

The AMR safety crew towed him back onto the track. However, he restarted his car and took off before the marshals could take the tow strap off his car. As a result, his car had a 'tail' flying all over the place as he continued the race. IndyCar penalized him for that.

After finishing the race in P22, a position lower than where he started, Daly summed up his day, saying (via JHR's website):

"A decent day going for us at the beginning, but completely locked the rears down in Turn 5. Really strange and we had some really difficult brake issues for the rest of the day. I’m not sure if it started there, but there was bad rear locking. I ended up in the gravel, which was my mistake."

"I just tried to fight back, but couldn’t do much. Apologies to the team. Obviously, drivers make mistakes sometimes, and today I did. I’ll take responsibility for that and move on to the next one."

Conor Daly also complained about getting hit by Alexander Rossi during the race. Though IndyCar took no action, he was upset with the Ed Carpenter Racing driver for the aggressive maneuver that injured his finger.