On Sunday, May 4th, Juncos Hollinger Racing driver, Conor Daly, started 19th at the fourth round of the NTT IndyCar championship held at Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama, to finish in the same place. Post the race, he specified the issue that needed addressing for better race results.
Speaking to Speedway Digest, the 33-year-old detailed the state of affairs that led to the disappointing weekend. While drivers like Alexander Rossi, who started in P15, moved to P9 just in four laps, Daly suffered a traffic issue and an on-track incident and finished the race where he started.
The decisive factor turned out to be the primary compound for the team. Conor Daly also added that JHR needs to figure out the best possible strategy in case there are no red or yellow flags in the race and the cars are required to complete the entirety of the race.
"In the beginning, we got blocked by another car and then got hit on lap one, so that kind of killed our momentum a little bit, which is a shame because I thought I had a great start! Honestly, our first two stints felt great. The pace on reds is good. We just need to improve our pace on the primary tire, and we've got to figure out the best possible strategies for these all-green (flag) races."
"It seems like we are just missing a little bit on clear track and a few opportunities there. Honestly, I think actually we learned quite a lot. Gotta figure out what happens at the next race. But we will be in good shape when we go to Indy," he added.
The 27-driver grid of the IndyCar series championship will next battle it out at the IMS Road Course for the Sonsio GP, scheduled for May 10th.
Conor Daly reacts sharply over Josef Newgarden's belt issue at the Long Beach GP

Conor Daly of Juncos Hollinger Racing strongly criticized Team Penske over a seat belt mishap involving Josef Newgarden. During the 50th ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach, Newgarden, a two-time Indy 500 champion, was running in fifth position before a seat belt malfunction dropped him to the back of the field, where he ended up being lapped twice.
Conor Daly was stunned by this being the second such incident in recent memory, with the previous one involving Will Power last year.
"What is Penske doing with their seat belts? I have no idea, I've never in my entire life, and I've been racing now a long time, a lot of races, I've never had my seat belts come undone," he said on his Speed Street podcast. [39:40 onwards]
"I don't know if they've got some wild lightweight seat belts or something or they're they're seated in a position where it's good for the center of gravity and the weight distribution to where they have to be in a certain spot, and it gets their arms (crossed up)."
After four rounds of the championship, Josef Newgarden is 11th with 78 points, and Conor Daly is 22nd with 43 points.
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