Conor Daly baffled by 'mysterious' problem during IndyCar Nashville qualifying

Juncos Hollinger Racing's Conor Daly was left baffled by a mystery problem during the 2025 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix (Nashville oval) qualifying session. After the end of the whole session that had all 27 drivers go for a run of two timed laps, Daly found himself down in P25 behind Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Louis Foster.

On lap one of his run, Daly managed a time of 24.0761s, whereas on lap two, he fell further back to a time of 24.2420s. Moreover, he was only able to post an average speed of 198.187 mph in his #76 Juncos Hollinger racecar.

In line with this, Daly shared his thoughts on his X account, casting some light on his tough two-lap run around the Nashville Superspeedway.

"Bit of a mystery on where our speed went for qualifying. A massive balance shift hurt us big time. We’ve done well coming from the back on ovals before so we’ll do it again tomorrow."

Conor Daly

@ConorDaly22

Bit of a mystery on where our speed went for qualifying. A massive balance shift hurt us big time. We’ve done well coming from the back on ovals before so we’ll do it again tomorrow 👀 @juncoshollinger @therejects #indycar

Interestingly, in Practice 1 ahead of qualifying, Conor Daly was able to perform decently as he ended the session in P15, and again behind Louis Foster.

While Daly did not have the best of times in the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix qualifying session, drivers like Pato O'Ward, David Malukas, and Christian Lundgaard performed extremely well to secure the first three spots.

The 2025 IndyCar drivers' champion, Alex Palou, ended up in P4 in his #10 Chip Ganassi racecar and ahead of his teammate and six-time champion Scott Dixon.

Conor Daly secured P13 in the Milwaukee oval race

NTT INDYCAR Series Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 - Source: Getty

Conor Daly has had a decent 2025 season for a small team like Juncos Hollinger Racing. He is currently the team's lead driver in the standings, in P19, having amassed 237 points with three top-ten finishes.

However, including his recent qualifying outing at the Nashville Superspeedway and last week's Milwaukee Mile 250 oval event, he has not had the kind of results he would have liked to close off the ongoing campaign.

He secured a disappointing P13 finish in Milwaukee and, after the event, cut out as a dejected figure. He said (via JHR):

"Wrapped up Milwaukee here, obviously a really fun start. I got a lot of positions right at the beginning of the race. But we have a lot to look at as a team. We had some difficult cycles in and out of the pits and we just have to figure that out. There were a lot of weird things going on with the car that we just have to analyze."

The upcoming 225-lap Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix will be the final race of the 2025 season. Considering this and Conor Daly's starting position of P25, he would like to make up as many positions as possible during the oval race.