NASCAR CUP SERIES: BLUEGREEN VACATIONS DUEL 2

February 16, 2023

Conor Daly

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started with our media interviews. We've been joined by Conor Daly, driver of the No. 50 Chevrolet. First of all, congratulations on making your way into the Daytona 500. Obviously a little bit of a crazy duel for your team. Take us through that race and really just the never-give-up attitude that you guys had until the end.

CONOR DALY: I'm sure none of you expected to see me here, but we changed everything but the color of the car in the race, so it was pretty wild to start. I thought it was broken immediately, but we just kind of kept going. Got through that part. Thankfully we got the yellow. If we didn't get the yellow, we were probably going to crash. It was really tough to drive.

Thankfully we got the yellow. Honestly, we took advantage of luck. It was very lucky but I'll take it all the time because we got better and better as we raced and I learned a lot at a high rate of speed. Pretty awesome to have a chance at it on Sunday.

Q. 10, 12 days ago you were like, yeah, if they want me to do it, I can't pass the opportunity up, and it was not what you thought it would be, I assume, but you will be the 62nd driver to drive both Indy and Daytona and the 20 something to do them both in the same year.

CONOR DALY: Sweet.

Q. How does that feel now that you've gone through that whole experience and this opportunity?

CONOR DALY: Honestly, it's something that is really, really special, and I, as a race fan first, I love this race, and I love the Indy 500, of course. That's the one true -- the true gem in my heart and mind.

But the Daytona 500 is the Daytona 500. I always think in my lifetime that I wanted to do the Le Mans 24-hour race, the Indy 500, and the Daytona 500. Now I'm going to have two of those crossed off the list. Now I've just got to find a ride for Le Mans at some point.

Honestly the only reason I'm here is because of Bitnile.com and Todd Ault's support and all of our partners that have pushed me forward. My career was essentially over at the end of 2020 -- no, end of -- yeah, 2021, and we met Todd, and Travis was there, which is hilarious, and here we are a couple years later, and we've kind of been vaulted into a whole different stratosphere.

It's incredible. If we could have asked me 18 months ago would I have been here, I would have thought you were living on the moon. So it's pretty cool.

Q. That was your birthday trip with Travis. You take this random meeting to be polite and now you and Travis are together in the Daytona 500. The full circle in irony, how does that feel?

CONOR DALY: Well, Travis, I did notice on my phone he sent me a text that just said, #you're welcome, so I don't know who started that crash or what happened there, but something might have happened there.

I mean, honestly, we thought about how crazy it would have been if Jimmie, me, and Travis would have made it because, like, Jimmie and Travis I know really well now and like I consider them really close friends. We've kind of all just ended up here after wild routes to get here, and we're all in the race. Like it was literally the dream scenario.

I can't wait to see those guys. I can't wait to go racing against those guys. It's just insane. I can't really believe that we made it, and I'm just thankful for the team.

They put in hours of work. I didn't even have my helmet on when they said, drivers, start your engine. It was insane what was going on here. We had a radio that looked like it was eaten by a rodent overnight like three, four hours ago. Literally we have been through everything just to get out on track and we made it, so I guess that's how stories are written.

Q. Your mom was on pit road, you guys shared a moment together, and obviously you have a lot of respect for this race. Where does this moment stack up, all things considered?

CONOR DALY: Honestly, the Indy 500, qualifying there every year means so much, but the 2018 Indy 500 in particular was one that like we were on the edge of making the race. Our car was not fast at all, and we had to try many, many times to qualify. And that was when there was a Bump Day. Like I literally just put everything I had on the line, every qualifying run, and we made the race.

I was crying and my mom was crying and everyone was crying, but that essentially started this whole relationship with the U.S. Air Force that I had, which then kind of restarted my career to really kind of end up here now.

So that moment and this moment I would say are pretty similar, and it's pretty cool to feel the emotion. I mean, even I had tears in my eyes down the back straight, which is kind of crazy.

Q. When your car is as eventful as it was, you said that you learned a lot at a high rate of speed. What possibly can you learn in that scenario when the car is not driving very well?

CONOR DALY: Well, that was the crazy thing. I guess hanging on to it was the first stint before the first yellow, and as soon as they made the vast amount of changes that we made in that first pit stop, the car was instantly better.

So I was like, keep doing that. If we get another chance to do that, let's keep doing that. As the car got lighter, it got better, as well.

That is a pretty -- that points to one thing, we were super stiff, and it was just kind of like, all right, we need to fix this, and every time we fixed it, each restart I learned a little bit more, got a little bit more comfortable.

The only reason I backed off that last one was because we were in and I saw one car shoot down below the double yellow line and then pieces of car started flying, so I was like, I don't know if I need to necessarily be there.

But yeah, learned a lot.

And then running with B.J., as well, that actually -- even though it was one car, I had still never, ever run with one car before. So running there and figuring out what the air does and how much you can suck up to another car was something I learned, as well.

Again, lots of learning, but I'm just thankful there's more practice.

Q. With everything that's gone on last night before qualifying and everything that's happened today, has it allowed you at all to enjoy this experience of being down here and trying to do this, or has that been secondary because of everything that's gone on?

CONOR DALY: Honestly, it's been a really tough last 24 hours, last 36 hours really. It's just been -- because for me, I want to be competitive. I want to be able to do my job as efficiently as I can and be as good as I can be for my partners and sponsors and family and friends, and sometimes when things out of your control take that away from you, it's just hard to deal with, especially someplace new.

I sat with Corey LaJoie watching the first Duel and literally just listening to him talk about well, this might happen, this might happen, and like you try to fill your mind with so much, and until you actually get out there, then you can finally filter it and say, okay, what was actually a lie and what was real and what was like legitimate.

Everyone had something different to say, but now I just feel like 100 times better because I actually felt what it was like. Now I'm happier. Yes, way happier.

Q. When we talked yesterday, I asked you about comparing other drivers who have gone from Indianapolis to Daytona, like Al Unser, like Jacques Villeneuve, like Dario Franchitti, and what you said was looking at them let you appreciate how difficult it was to qualify for this race. Considering everything that happened with you and your team since you guys unloaded yesterday, do you feel like anyone has ever had a more difficult experience trying to make The 500 hundred and been successful in doing so?

CONOR DALY: Well, I don't know about that. Landon Cassill is calling me, this guy, a NASCAR driver. My goodness gracious. I don't know if this whole experience can be compared to a lot of the other ones because of like the no practice stuff and because of the fact that we go right into qualifying.

I think I've watched for many years when anyone from open wheel comes over because it is fascinating for me because that's my world that they are coming from and trying something new.

I understand at a small, small piece how difficult it is. I will continue to understand how difficult it is. I have an incredible amount of respect for these drivers in this series. Everyone is really good. I always want to remember to continue saying that because I think all across the board, whether it's INDYCAR, NASCAR, F1, everyone is good at what they do, and it's pretty cool to get to compete against a lot of them.

Q. You mentioned learning about how these cars act in the draft when you started running with B.J. McLeod. Now the next step is going to be learning how they operate in a pack. What do you expect on that front?

CONOR DALY: Well, the pack running that we did a little bit at the beginning, and then just a hair in the middle, it's interesting. The car moves around a bit more. I would say building a run wasn't as easy as I expected, I guess, after watching these races.

But a lot of the drivers did tell me track position is going to be very important in this race in particular. I understand what they mean. It was just interesting to feel.

I have just a massive amount more knowledge now, and hopefully I can use that efficiently as we go forward.

Q. Conor, I got a text message here from Helio, it says, "woohoo." I guess in some you've got to thank him a little bit since he turned this ride down.

CONOR DALY: Well, I mean, he's probably on the couch having a great time. He can do this anytime he wants. He's got four rings. He just needs to make a call.

Q. Do you feel like the car was like having the shopping cart with the bad wheel in the supermarket, that when you took off, no matter what you did it wasn't going to handle?

CONOR DALY: I compare it to racing go-karts when you bend an axel. That is what it felt like. When you bend an axel racing go-karts the vibrations are astounding, and that was what it felt like in a bigger fashion.

I guess the goal was just to drive through it and eventually we got there. But yeah, it was something I've never experienced before, and add that to the list of new surprises.

Q. Any of your mates from INDYCAR, have they texted you? Have you heard from Rossi yet?

CONOR DALY: Well, I have 170 text messages, so I haven't got to them yet. So there's a few. Actually Alex -- oh, Ed Carpenter did say, way to survive. At least you got some practice, so that's good. Thank you, boss. My girlfriend called me and she was crying, so that's good. She'll be here tomorrow now. Good thing we booked that flight.

Q. What was it like to get the hug from your mom after getting out of the car?

CONOR DALY: Well, she's always crying, and then it makes me want to cry. Racing is such an incredible, I guess, thing for our family just in general. We love this sport. It doesn't matter if it's NASCAR, doesn't matter if it's INDYCAR, doesn't matter if I'm racing the Freedom 500 at Cleetus McFarland's oval in an old police car. We love it, and we love being a part of it.

Like it's something that my family knows how much I've dedicated of my life to this sport and how a lot of times it's gone rough for me and us, but they're always there. So having her here was really cool.

She did tell me she has a flight home tomorrow though, so I don't know if that's very confidence inspiring, but I'm sure she'll be back by Sunday.

Q. I'm guessing probably one of the greatest accomplishments for you were leading the most laps in the Indy 500 with what that means and your family ties, but can you give me a sense of what this accomplishment means for you and how it compares to other things you've done in your career?

CONOR DALY: I noticed that everyone got a qualifying photo after they got a qualifying run yesterday. I didn't get one. I'd like to get one of those. I don't know if that's possible to set up somewhere, but that seemed pretty cool.

It's very high up on my list of things that I've done in my career, only because I've always been fascinated with this event. It's such a huge, huge kickoff to the entire motor racing season, and it's some of the best drivers in the world that you get to compete against.

I love watching it. I remember talking to Austin Cindric at the Colts game over the winter. We were just sitting watching, and Tim is there, as well, with us, and we were talking about the Roval honestly because I hadn't got to talk to him afterwards.

I said, well, we might do the Daytona 500, and we just had a great conversation about that, and it was so cool to see Austin win last year.

It's something that I've always watched, so to be a part of it now is kind of crazy, but it's really special.

Q. Your mom described you as kind of even keel in ways, but the emotions and the highs and lows and not getting the chance to be out on the track last night, I'm sure you've gone through other challenges, but what were the last 24 hours like and the uncertainty, and having to go do this without any practice and what you've gone through emotionally?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, honestly, man, it's been hard. It's been one of the harder experiences of my career only because if this were to happen on an INDYCAR weekend, if you miss -- if something happens, you miss practice or qualifying, you go into the race like I know what that's all about, I know what the races are there, but I don't know anything about what I was about to do tonight.

It's not necessarily -- it's just tough to deal with that because you want to be as good as you can be, but you don't physically know what it's going to be like. You can't possibly know.

It was hard, and I didn't really sleep at all last night, but yeah, it's all worth it. We do this for moments like this when it all pays off, when things work out. Sometimes you get lucky. It hasn't happened to me a lot, but sometimes you've got to be super thankful for those moments, and I am very thankful right now.