INDYCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 8, 2021

Conor Daly

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. He received some of the biggest cheers at the Speedway when he took the lead for the first time in the Indianapolis 500. All told he led 40 laps, which ties him with the legendary Jackie Stewart on the all-time laps led list. Jackie did that 1966, so a few years ago. He returns to Detroit this weekend for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. One big lead-in for Conor Daly, who joins us this afternoon.

Bouncing back from the 500, did you appreciate a week off, maybe like some others did?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, it was very weird, but it was nice. Nice to have some time off. I got a text from Marco Andretti, he was like, Hey, let's go to Florida.

I said, Okay, let's go to Florida for a couple days.

Ended up at with the Bitcoin conference with my team here on Saturday. It was a great experience. Nice to have a bit of time off. Ever since the 500 finished, I was dying to get back in the car, like really badly. I can't wait to get going. I love Detroit, so I'm excited for it.

THE MODERATOR: Proof again you just never know where life will lead if you're Conor Daly. End up in Florida.

CONOR DALY: Absolutely.

THE MODERATOR: Heading back to Detroit, you haven't raced since 2017, certainly had that podium finish in '16. How well do you like the street course up there?

CONOR DALY: It's one of my favorite tracks, even 2015 there in the Arrow machine for Hinch after he had the mix-up with the wall at Indy. That was one of my most fun weekends, still to this day. In the rain, leading the race there up against those guys as a complete and utter rookie. I love the track. Love the race weekend. I think it's done so well.

Especially we're a Chevy team, so very excited to be in the backyard there, which is really, really cool. It's weird to think it was so long ago since I raced there. There's a couple other places we're going to go this year that are probably the same way.

It's going to be cool to get back there and let her rip, see what we can do. Hopefully the stuff we learned from the Indy GP, the progress we made with our car carries over to Detroit.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. What did it feel like to lead (indiscernible).

CONOR DALY: Uh-oh.

THE MODERATOR: We lost you.

CONOR DALY: You must be parked under a bridge.

THE MODERATOR: I'm going to finish that question. I think I may know where she was going with that.

What was it like to lead laps? Now you're there.

Q. What did it feel like to lead and to hear that crowd?

CONOR DALY: Well, I couldn't hear anything, so I was just listening to my engineer and my strategist Ben. He's like, Well, we got to make some fuel now.

I said, All right, here we go.

It was nice. But honestly the coolest thing was seeing all the Internet stuff afterwards. Actually just last night for some reason I hadn't gone through like the posts that I'd been tagged in on Instagram. I started going through them all. There were a ton of videos from race day. It's just wild to see.

I've been to the Indy 500 before. I've cheered for moments like that before where, like, you just -- I don't know, it's electrifying. That's kind of like why we do it. You don't appreciate it at the time. You're in the car, you're doing the business, you're working. It was the coolest thing ever to see that video.

Even when I was in Miami, it's really funny, people that I knew that I never thought would have watched the race, it's like, We saw you leading the race on Sunday.

I didn't even know you knew there was an event happening.

It was like, Marshmallow's tour manager. Sweet, man. I appreciate that. You know what I mean? Really, really cool to see that. I think this year's Indy 500 did such a great job reaching so many people. The ratings were fantastic. It was cool. I mean, it still is cool. Can't think about that any more, we got a race ahead of us.

Q. How do you feel about the series? It goes up and down, the highs and the lows. How do you feel about where the series is right now with the buzz surrounding it?

CONOR DALY: I think it's awesome. Even down to the Bitcoin conference over the weekend, a lot of energy, a lot of people that came up to us and said, Hey, we watched the Indy 500 for the first time in a long time. We watched the Indy 500 because of you guys. That's really awesome. A lot of high-energy folks down there. A lot of great stuff going on.

Hopefully the Indy 500, what we just did, all the excitement, the people that were there, the big TikTokers that were there, there was so much coolness that kind of felt like we had missed that for so long because of 2020 and all that stuff. Realistically 2019 was awesome. It's still the Indy 500. I think after a year like 2020 you kind of needed that massive hype to come back. It did. It was super cool.

We obviously hope that at least a lot of those people realize, Hey, we're going to have some pretty high-intensity action here at Detroit, too. Our favorite marketing partners Jimmie Johnson and Romain Grosjean will be back in action, as well. Can't wait for those guys to be back there also.

Q. You got Romain out of his bus. Appears he lives in the infield at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He also has been embraced by this community. How have you found he is enjoying this new American series, his time in Indianapolis, his move to this new form of racing?

CONOR DALY: Well, it's funny. I think talking to him, the biggest thing that I notice is that he hates watching. He's like, I can't wait to get back in it. You know what I mean? I think there was something, the Indy 500 did look pretty cool. I was like, Yeah, man, it's pretty cool. Maybe you should try it out some time.

Who knows what will happen there. But he's a good dude. I think he's enjoying it. He's embracing it as much as possible, which is really, really cool. Yeah, I mean, I think a guy like that has accomplished a lot. I think he's a very respectable and talented driver that we know about. Obviously I saw him coming through the ranks when I was younger as well. He's won a lot of races, been successful. Formula 1 was a tough ride for him at the end.

I truly believe that he's just excited to be back competing at the front in INDYCAR. INDYCAR is a great place to compete no matter where you come from in your racing background.

Q. How long do you think he can live in the infield at IMS?

CONOR DALY: I don't know. He asked for Doug's number last night. I don't know if he's trying to rent a spot in there or what. I know he has a key to the place because he's been using the gym, riding his bike there. That's the first time I've heard a driver being given the key to the racetrack to just live there.

THE MODERATOR: A quick aside. Do you remember the first driver you got up and cheered after he was leading, he or she, maybe the most recent driver that you're up in the stands watching? It's got to be weird to know someone out there is now doing that for you.

CONOR DALY: I don't know. Like, Scott Goodyear maybe back in the day. The old Panther Racing days when Doug Boles was involved with Panther Racing. I always wore my Pennzoil shirt. I had a crew shirt that was seven sizes too big for me. Showed up to Victory Lane with Gil de Ferran still with all my Pennzoil gear on. Something like that.

I was an underdog guy. I don't know if Alex Barron ever took the lead at Indy, but I always cheered for Alex. I was a big Alex Barron fan when he was doing well. A lot of interesting cheers for sure.

Q. How do you handle this hangover from the three weeks you spent at home? Does it vary between the results that you have in the race, something from 2015 or '19 with different results? Do you just want to get back in the car right away?

CONOR DALY: I think getting back in the car right away is super. That's what you want. I think a little bit of time to reset, rest the body a little bit. Our body goes through a lot for those three weeks. It's something that I think a good reset kind of basically just -- we got back into the gym, started grinding it out again, get a little bit of time to work on things for Detroit. It's super important. Without a doubt it's going to be the physically most difficult weekend of the year.

I think the week off is going to help all the drivers, going to help everyone. But, yeah, mentally I'm ready to go again, ready to get back right into it. Just, yeah, ready to rock.

Q. Is the physical aspect of Detroit maybe why it kind of suits you a little bit better? A track where you have had some of the better results.

CONOR DALY: You know what, I think it's just the nature of the track honestly. I love street courses. Always have in the past in my career. I'm just happy to get back there.

It's an interesting strategic game there, as well, which I think is cool. It's tough for people. I like places like that.

Q. Two vastly types of tracks, big oval in Indianapolis, then this tight, hard-to-pass street circuit. Can momentum really carry over from one event to the next?

CONOR DALY: I mean, yes, mentally. I think physically, yeah, because we just did a lot of time in the car. Our bodies are ready for this long weekend.

But realistically what I look forward to most is the progress we made at the Indy GP. That's what I'm most excited about. That is such a short weekend, you get right into oval stuff. We made a lot of progress there. I'm excited to see if we can continue that for another good run at Detroit.

It will be good to just get back out there and start turning right again.

Q. We know how good your team has been on the big ovals. Now it's up there with Rinus on the street courses and road courses, and yourself. How far away do you see your team from being able to be one of the ones that's always going to be a constant threat?

CONOR DALY: I think for years I've been talking about creating continuity. I think we see right now what continuity is doing for this whole group, both Rinus and I. We get better. Your goal as a driver is to improve constantly, work with your team to just keep building that pyramid up, keep going.

Rinus is doing that. I think I'm doing that. I don't think we've been able to obviously translate to results yet for several things that have been out of our control obviously. But we're in the fight rather than a lot of the races last year we were nowhere even near the talk of anything. But now we're putting ourselves up there.

I think it just takes time for me, for sure. I think this car, without a doubt, has been very, very challenging for me to get to grips with with all the new additions from 2020 with the aeroscreen and everything like that. But we are getting there, I think. We want to continue to be able to use that information, continue to be able to work with our engineers here, to be fighting in the top 10 every single weekend, but not only there, fighting for the Fast Six qualifying sports, fighting for wins. Rinus has a win now. I also want to be joining him in that category.

Q. Three races over the next eight-day period. How much does this really test the driver's physical and mental ability?

CONOR DALY: It's going to be great. That's what we do. It's why we make the moderately sized monies. It's going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait for Detroit. I can't wait for Road America. An incredible race.

Yeah, I mean, it's summertime. It's time to get outside and go to some motor racing events. I'm excited to see our fans as well at all these different places.

Q. Back in the 20 this weekend. Much better shape as far as leader circle, team money, positioning. As an entrant does that change the way you approach the race weekend knowing a mistake isn't going to necessarily cost Ed and the team some money?

CONOR DALY: No, I don't think so. I mean, still pretty early on for that type of discussion. But, yeah, I mean, I think either way, even when we were thinking about it last year at the final two races or whatever, you still go into it with the same thought process, right? There's no change in that. We're just going out to try to be the best we can be.

We want to get trophies. We want to be at the front. I think this team can do it. I think that's our goal now. I'm excited for it.

Q. You said you struggled with this car in 2020. What has been the hardest thing for you to get used to or adapt to?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, for me, it has been the difference in the balance between the car on the primary tire to the red tire. We've spent a lot of time trying to narrow that gap between how the car feels when we change tires and race pace.

I think race pace-wise our car on heavy fuel has been a challenge for me. I think we've been narrowing that gap. I think we've been getting better in race pace conditions.

But, yeah, the car does a lot of things. Instead of just one problem, there's three problems handling-wise. As a driver, it becomes difficult. There's a lot of information coming in when you go through the entry phase of the corner, the center of the corner, the exit of the corner. Instead of having one problem, we have apex understeer, you could be loose in, apex understeer, loose off. You're like, Well, all right, we got a lot of things to fix.

It's a matter of just narrowing things down and finding a better window of operation. The car has a very narrow window right now. I think we see that a lot. The entire field is within 8/10ths of a second. That narrow window it's like 2/10ths or 3/10ths of a second. If you're on the right side of those two 10ths, that's the goal.

Yeah, it's just been tough for us to kind of narrow that window down but I think we're definitely getting there.

Q. Back to Indy. Could you just give us an idea of what was running through your mind when you hit that wheel, the kind of safety of the car?

CONOR DALY: The funny thing is we were in the office yesterday here at the shop. We were looking at the video. There was also, like, tire smoke. We were trying to figure out...

My engineer thought it hit the front so hard that the rear tires actually spun, but it wasn't. It was me locking the front tires because I literally -- I can see every moment in my brain. All slow motion. Graham is in the wall, I'm going low following the car right in front of me. There's a lot of smoke. There's more smoke ground level when you're in the car driving for several laps, a lot of debris on the screen. I'm like, All right, here we go. Boom. I'm like, Whoa, what the heck was that? Like literally had no sight of it at all.

So, yeah, as soon as it hit, I didn't even know what I hit, to be honest. Had not a clue. Obviously since it didn't necessarily rip the left front off the car, I was like, I think we're okay. I don't know what it was.

So, yeah, obviously a lot of people have come up to me, Oh, man, if that was two feet higher. You didn't have the aeroscreen...

I was like, You know what, you're right.

Yeah, I mean, racing is a game of those situations. There's a lot of times where people look back, they're like, Well, if it went like this, it could have happened this way.

You're like, Hey, it doesn't matter. We're all here, all safe. All good.

Our front wing was not safe. It was one of those things I remember every second of it. From then on it just became a decision of do we sacrifice all of our track position that we've gained or do we see if this will work. At that point I think the gamble was right. You're screwed if you do, screwed if you don't, you know what I mean?

As we saw, there were no more yellows. It would have been really hard to make that jump in strategy. Every situation there's a hundred different outcomes. I think we tried our best. We kept peeling rear wing out of it because the front adjustor was broken. We tried to do the best we could for the situation we were in. It is what it is. On to the next one.

Q. If we think about the laps you led at Indy, you spoke about the momentum coming up for the next few races, how important do you feel that kind of thing is for your career, kind of building momentum? Is leading that many laps at Indy something you can build into working on your future in INDYCAR?

CONOR DALY: I certainly hope so. All you can do is keep putting stats like that in the stat column. Leading a lot of laps at Indy is great. Leading the most laps at Indy is cool. I was like, Hey, that's something I guess.

But, yeah, I mean, realistically no one cares about that when you really look at the results, right? We finished 13th. Thankfully you all know. We watched, we participated. People who watched, they know, which is really cool.

Yeah, I think it helps. I think at Indy I've struggled for sure in different situations with different just kind of scenarios. I really do enjoy racing there. Like I love the racing atmosphere, the style on track, how you get forward, how you make moves. Now I have that experience up front.

It's a very different experience if you're in the top four cars, very, very different. It's much easier than I expected. But it's nice because people are thinking, Hey, we want to just be here for the last 20 laps. You know what I mean?

Getting through that center part of the race becomes, I don't know, more efficient. You're not being an idiot, you know what I mean? Neither was Rinus, neither was Colton or Pato or Helio. Everyone, they're thinking. I like that. I like being a part of that group.

Q. We've talked this season about the ups and downs you've experienced. Now that you've had a little bit of time to reflect on being able to lead the most laps among with the unfortunate tire incident from Graham that hurt your race day, what ultimately a week and a half later do you come away from this race thinking about the most? Was it the positives or opportunity you maybe lost from something so flukey?

CONOR DALY: I think honestly I try to look at it pretty positively. Our incredible Indy 500 race car is sitting in the shop. All you got to do is replace the front wing and that thing is going to be ready to go next year. I'm hoping by the end of the year we can just put these pieces back together.

I really enjoy working with this race team. I think they've done a great job. We're in a great spot now. Ed was obviously very fast. Rinus was very fast. Everyone has been fast. That's something that's really encouraging.

I just want to come back again next year. Someone said to me last night, they were like, I think you can win this thing now.

You always go into it hoping you can do that, right? We're not competing to finish eighth, right? To be up there and to kind of have that experience at the front now, you're like, That's a part of the experience that I did not have in the past. I had never been leading. I had never been in the top three. I was fifth or fourth in 2019. It's a little bit different.

You just want to be able to use that. So for me the goal is to continue to execute every weekend, make no mistakes, and when the results come, that's going to be a product of all of our guys doing the best job that they can do alongside of me doing the best job that I can do.

I think that's so far we've proven to have some speed. We want to obviously make sure that the results and the attention we got from our partner with the U.S. Air Force is strong enough to continue in 2022.

Q. Being in a position where you're running a full schedule for the second year in a row, weathering the ups and downs from that full schedule, have you gone through maybe what you would characterize learning more about yourself when you're in the car more often, dealing with all these unique in-race circumstances? Do you feel over the last two months like you've learned more about yourself and who you are as a driver that maybe you didn't already know before the season started?

CONOR DALY: I think really nothing surprises me any more. I would say that would probably be the top thing on the list.

I mean, I've learned a lot about myself I guess. I think I've also tried to do a lot of work on my own brain, which I think has been helpful because a lot of the stuff, when you look at a year going into it, none of this crazy stuff is going to happen, it's just going to be great, every race is going to be great.

All this crazy stuff has happened, and you can't change your attitude. You have to go into Detroit, It's going to be great, it's going to be perfect, we're going to execute.

But the crazy part about racing is there are so many of those factors that are outside your control. I think without a doubt our sport is leaps and bounds above any other sport when it comes to other things that affect the athlete or the pilot of the vehicle, right?

The NBA Finals, if you're not shooting the ball right, guess what, you're not going to score points, not going to win the game. If I'm having my best day, get hit by something in the sky, I don't know, something happens.

We're just going to keep going at it every weekend, trying to be the best we can be. I feel really good about myself and my team, yeah. That's the goal, is to just be happy and be ready to execute every weekend.

Q. With Helio winning a fourth 500, we've heard a lot of folks comparing how they view winning a 500 versus winning a series championship, how the importance compares to themselves versus how they view someone else who has one 500 versus one series championship. How do you reflect on the value of those two prizes in the series?

CONOR DALY: I mean, that's an interesting question. I think the 500 will always be the iconic event. I think my own personal view is I would rather win an Indy 500 than the championship, right? I think that's just something that is for me just of the icon no matter what. Even during the days of the split, right, there was still the Indy 500. You wanted to be there. Everyone wanted to win the Indy 500.

I think something that's crazy is like Josef Newgarden is a two-time INDYCAR champion. Incredible. How does this guy not have an Indy 500 yet? It's so hard to win. Josef is so good. I spent a lot of time racing with him in the last stint. You know what, it's not our day today. It's tough. He's been at the front so many times. It was like Tony Kanaan, took him a million times to do it. Tony Kanaan got himself one.

That event is so difficult to win that the championship is a long journey you have to go through to get the championship. The 500, it's like on that day you got to be the best. That's I think what makes it so challenging.

Q. You seem to be confident heading into Belle Isle. When is the last time you felt this confident heading into a race weekend?

CONOR DALY: I don't know. I mean, I always try to be confident. I think there's a lot higher energy now because of all the kind of good stuff that has been going on with our team, which is really, really cool.

But, yeah, I mean, I would say my confidence level probably 2019 Indy 500, I was like very confident. I was like, Hey, this is going to be a good one. That's just one race.

2020 was tough for me, for sure. 2020 at Gateway I was pretty confident. We had some tough times there. Yeah, it's one of those things where I just feel good about our program.

You know what? You never know what could happen this weekend. We got two races, which is fantastic, at one of my favorite tracks. I think it's a great chance to get points and a great chance to load up the old Chevy Tahoe with trophies and drive it back to Indianapolis.

Q. You've driven a lot of different cars. You've always out-driven the equipment. Now is there a little extra pressure with a car that you know is more than capable? There's pressure driving a car that is capable of winning or podiums at least.

CONOR DALY: No. I think the only pressure is just on yourself to continue to fine-tune everything. I think we know that we've got some good stuff right now. I think there's no pressure. You're just happy, right? You know, We're going to be able to do the job.

Even Scott Dixon will show up to a race weekend and have -- they're going to have probably a great situation, but Scott Dixon shows up and has to put in a lot of work to get either a race win or get to the front. It's the same on us.

We've got cars, we've got great cars. Scott Dixon qualified 17th for the Indy GP. Got a good car, though. That's the level we're competing at now. I don't know what he qualified there. The level we're competing at now is all of the cars are pretty good. It's just a matter of fine-tuning them for your driver, for your situation, for the tire, for the day.

Q. Belle Isle has the tight first corner. Is qualifying even more important this weekend knowing how aggressive people can be trying to make up spots?

CONOR DALY: For sure. I think the qualifying format, it's fun. I think the two sessions or whatever with the Fast 12, it's going to be cool. I think it's going to be a good situation. Qualifying is super important. You definitely don't want to be outside the top 12, I can promise you that. It becomes much harder when you qualify outside of the top 12 and the top six. It challenging are more frivolously presented to you when you start in the back.

THE MODERATOR: So far no mention of the mullet. I think it might be mullet driven. Just a thought.

CONOR DALY: That's not true (laughter). Boy, is it getting aggressive.

Q. How long is the mullet going to last?

CONOR DALY: It's selling a lot of merch. If it's selling merch it's going to stay. It's positive.

Q. How difficult has it been this season switching between two teams? What has been the main challenge for yourself, if there are any?

CONOR DALY: Well, I mean, with this year being so few ovals, it's only going to happen one other time, right? I hope so. Yeah, I mean, like Texas was tough because we didn't get to test there. Everything happened so fast. We were sad. We were disappointed. We thought we had a really strong run there the year before. I really like working with those guys.

But, yeah, realistically I'm so much more in-house at ECR this year because of the fact there's only one oval left, sadly. I wish there were about 10 left.

We've got this situation where we've got a great team here and we're going to work on it. The teams have been great. Transferring my seat back and forth has been super easy. We're Team Chevy teams, as well. That's really, really helpful.

Yes, it is weird. It's awkward. I would love it to be just one team, one situation. But, hey, we're making the best of it.

Q. From your perspective, how much progress has been made at ECR from 2020 to 2021?

CONOR DALY: Realistically I think leaps and bounds. Massive, massive amounts of progress. Certainly for me personally because I kind of know, obviously not going to give away everything we're doing, but I know that Rinus and I drive different cars, very different cars. A lot of the times we just haven't been able to get what I needed out of it. It's much easier for Rinus. He's obviously very, very quick, very, very talented. His operational window I think for getting the best out of the car is a little bit wider than mine. There's no denying that.

But what we found at the Indy GP, I think we were able to do a great job in executing and qualifying. I think we still have a lot to learn because that was obviously my first Fast Six. I think there's a way we can improve our running there if we make it there again.

Yeah, obviously we had a great race pace, too. Even after our car, we figured it out, got back on track a million laps down, we were pretty quick honestly. We knew we could compete race pace-wise as well. Now the matter is getting through the first corner. That would be lovely. Then just continuing on from there, seeing what we can do.

Q. Everybody mentions the physical demands of Detroit. How do you go about training for a weekend like this and how different is that training compared to other weekends?

CONOR DALY: I mean, the funny thing is there's not enough time to do enough training for it, right? We trained last week. We trained this morning, twice a day yesterday. I'm flying to the simulator tonight. We're on the simulator tomorrow all day, which will be good to get things going there.

Yeah, I think this weekend we try out the cool suit as well, the cool shirt that some guys were wearing in St. Pete which hopefully will help us temperature-wise in the car. Yeah, there's a lot we got to try this weekend. We're certainly ready for it.

But I think having the week off, it was definitely important for the body to really cool down after three weeks in a row, and literally the most days in a row in the car that we have all year long.

Q. You mentioned the team continuing to make improvements. What do you feel you need to continue to work on?

CONOR DALY: I think just, like, continuing down the road that we're going. The road that we're going is a positive road. I still would like to have a little bit more confidence on full fuel loads when we leave the pits. I think that's something that we're continuously improving on.

But other than that, we want to be just consistently improving on our race pace. I think race pace is going to be super important. I think that's probably the goal.

Q. The experience of driving or racing with all of this new race young guns that we have compared to racing in the same Indianapolis 500 with Helio Castroneves, veterans and rookies, how was that?

CONOR DALY: That's a great question. It's really interesting racing with Helio. On the one restart where we restarted third, Helio is sliding up the outside, pushing hard, pulling off moves that you'd expect from a young rookie. That's kind of a level that we're at. Everyone is so good. The young guys are really good.

I think Rinus for sure, my teammate, showed a lot of maturity at the front. Colton as well. Those guys we know are very good. Obviously proven winners. Then you look at a guy like Juan Pablo Montoya who really I think had a tough month. On track when we were practicing, Man, that guy is having a tough day. The guy finishes in the top 10, has a solid race.

The experience that they have is so helpful. I'm gaining that experience every year. I can understand now, Here is where you put it into play, here is where it's helping you. I think every year the field gets tighter, obviously the closest, fastest field in history this year. I think we're going to keep seeing that because the level of driving right now is very, very high.

THE MODERATOR: Six races, six different winners.

CONOR DALY: Let's make it seven (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: He could be at a pool right now, on a slip and slide, doing something out in the backyard, he could be doing any number of things right now, but young Asher has joined us to wrap things up. All yours from Asher's Racing Channel.

ASHER: I'm just coming in to do this then go back out with my friend. It's been a while since you or anyone has ever been to Belle Isle. This is the first time with the aeroscreen. Do you feel you are kind of starting over learning in Belle Isle since no one has done it with the aeroscreen setup?

CONOR DALY: Great question. I think there will be some elements that might be surprising. We've only got one practice. Everyone's going to be thrashing, absolutely thrashing in that first practice because you got to run the primaries, you got to run the red tires. We're going to be all over the map on trying to get setup information for not only qualifying but our race setup as well. It's going to be very, very hectic.

I think there will be some differences. Having run at St. Pete, having run at the Indy GP, having done some testing at Sebring obviously pre-season, we have some information to go off of. Obviously we have the simulator tomorrow, as well. It is something we used very effectively before the Indy GP. I hope it will be just at effective for the Detroit weekend this weekend.

ASHER: Thank you, Conor.

THE MODERATOR: What is the rest of your afternoon holding, from 2:00 on?

ASHER: So I have a little track I made around my neighborhood. Me and my friend Jacob are going to ride around.

THE MODERATOR: Sounds like fun. Thank you, Asher.

ASHER: Welcome.

THE MODERATOR: You could be hanging out with Asher the rest of the day, Conor.

CONOR DALY: I got to go do laundry and go to Charlotte. That's way more fun (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for doing this. Have fun on the sim tomorrow. Look forward to seeing you and the team in Detroit.

CONOR DALY: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.