IndyCar veteran Conor Daly reveals bizarre superstition among racing teams

IndyCar veteran Conor Daly has revealed a "weird" superstition that many racing teams believe. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver shared that teams tend to steer clear of one particular color when designing a car livery.

Daly recently appeared for an interview on the Mythfits podcast. When host Kari Byron asked whether he had any pre-race superstitions or knew about some beliefs held by other racers, the 33-year-old said that many racing teams believe green, a color he carried on his No. 76 JHR Chevy for some races this season, to be unlucky.

"One superstition that I don't know why, and it would really disagree with my entire life, but green is apparently a car color that you cannot have in racing," Conor Daly said [30:30 onwards]. "Apparently, if your car is green, that's bad luck. My car is green currently. Well, it has been green at some point this year. My helmet is black and green. I've had a lot of bad luck at random points in my life, so maybe that does apply in some cases."

Elaborating on the bizarreness of the superstition, Daly, who has also raced in NASCAR and has links in F1, with his father Derek Daly being a former F1 driver, added:

"But there's some sort of weird superstition about green racecars that some race team owners have. But if it's a green sponsor or if anyone wants to be on our car and they have green company colors, guess what? They're going on. It's just something I always thought was weird, and I've had it mentioned to me a couple of times because obviously I have a black and green helmet."

Conor Daly carried a green, white, and black livery for select races in the 2025 IndyCar season, and his Juncos Hollinger Racing teammate Sting Ray Robb did so for the majority of it. However, the green curse seemed to be reserved only for Daly, who had a significant chunk of misfortune.

Unexpected tire degradation issues plagued him on certain ovals, including the Indy 500, where he could've been in contention for a victory, while unfavorable incidents with some rivals on road/street circuits, like the Santino Ferrucci battle at Mid-Ohio and the tussle with Christian Rasmussen in Portland, prevented him from achieving better results.

Conor Daly faces competition to retain Juncos Hollinger Racing seat in 2026

Conor Daly leads two drivers at the 2025 IndyCar Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 - Source: Getty

Conor Daly signed with Juncos Hollinger Racing on a one-year deal for 2025, with the team requiring its drivers to bring significant sponsorship. Though the Noblesville, Indiana, native was the better performer among the team's two drivers, he has yet to secure a contract extension for 2026, and so has teammate Sting Ray Robb.

Other uncontracted players in the 2026 IndyCar driver market are Romain Grosjean, Linus Lundqvist, Indy NXT drivers Dennis Hauger (2025 champion) and Caoi Collet, Rinus Veekay, and Jacob Abel. From this list, Abel is expected to lose his seat at Dale Coyne Racing, with Grosjean and Hauger reportedly being the team's top prospects.

Veekay has already left DCR, with his next destination expected to be AJ Foyt Racing, where he'll replace David Malukas, who is the most likely replacement for Will Power at Team Penske. This leaves Lundqvist and Collet in the mix for Conor Daly's No. 76 JHR Chevy.

Juncos Hollinger Racing, which also announced a return to Indy NXT on Monday, September 9, has to fill four seats - two in IndyCar and two in Indy NXT - for the 2026 season, with no deadline publicly announced yet.