Simply over 18 months because it appeared his full-time American open-wheel racing desires have been over, ‘s profession has risen from the ashes.
Daly, the Indiana native who’s raced in IndyCar for almost a dozen groups will race full-time for in 2025, the group introduced Wednesday, finishing an overhaul of JHR’s two-car lineup that has featured 5 drivers over the previous two seasons and can add a sixth in 2025 in Daly’s new teammate, .
In Daly, group co-owners Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger add a driver who has constantly put collectively top-10 finishes within the Indy 500 — 4 instances with three totally different groups — and excels on ovals, a key addition for a program that has picked up simply two oval top-10s since its return to competing full-time in 2021.
Conor Daly information:
That efficiency degree shone this 12 months when Daly subbed for the ultimate 5 races for JHR and delivered a pair of oval top-10s — . Daly, who turned 33 on Sunday, additionally delivered JHR’s first championship of any variety in 2010 in what’s now USF Professional 2000.
“When Conor rejoined us final 12 months, it felt like we seamlessly picked up proper the place we left off in 2010,” Ricardo Juncos mentioned in a information launch. “I’m thrilled to have him again within the automobile full-time for 2025.”
Added Daly: “After the thrill and success we shared in 2024, together with Milwaukee, it looks like the right subsequent step. I’m grateful for Ricardo and Brad’s perception in me as I embark on the revitalization of my profession. I stay up for pursuing podiums and wins with this unimaginable group.”
From final season:
Daly will probably be checked out as a pleader whose efficiency will finally decide the trajectory of JHR’s short-term future.
This undertaking embarked upon by Juncos and Hollinger within the late-summer of 2021 already feels as if it is in its fourth distinctive part in comparatively quick order: a one-car group with Callum Ilott that sometimes flashed aggressive velocity; two automobiles throughout a rocky season that featured extra off-track storylines than on; and one which changed the younger hotshot Ilott with the notoriety of ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean, in hopes that his world reputation and Agustin Canapino’s Argentine fanfare would generate sponsorship.
A group that hardly ever had sponsorship stickers in 2024, there is a purpose JHR has a brand new lineup with Robb delivering what’s believed to be the most important sponsor backing on the free agent market and , his Indy 500 and NASCAR sponsor from the 2024 season, together with different smaller offers he’d already gathered as he navigated the murky waters of free company but once more.
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In August, that will’ve seen him utterly change his profession path and race full-time in NASCAR’s Xfinity sequence whereas solely operating the five hundred in a one-off with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. After that program was vehemently voted down, and with Grosjean concurrently working within the background to cobble collectively new companions to try to preserve a maintain on his seat, there have been moments the place it was unclear whether or not Daly’s IndyCar profession would proceed.
Only a few months later, he is discovered his fourth full-time dwelling — beforehand operating with Dale Coyne Racing (2016), AJ Foyt Racing (2017) and Ed Carpenter Racing (2022-23). Ought to he handle to carry onto this seat for a full two seasons — ECR reduce Daly halfway by way of his second full-time marketing campaign after inconsistent outcomes and intra-team stress — or longer, this chance represents one which appears to have the constructing blocks for a long-term partnership.
“Our essential precedence this 12 months is to construct upon the success we’ve seen within the group’s quick three-year marketing campaign,” JHR group principal Dave O’Neill mentioned in a information launch. “With Conor becoming a member of the group and Sting Ray already confirmed, we’re well-positioned to realize that. That is just the start of a long-term course of to construct a stronger and extra aggressive basis for the longer term.”
Daly, nevertheless, is about to take over 4th all-time in sequence begins with no win. He at present sits tied for sixth at 115. His career-best factors end of seventeenth, which got here in 2022 in a season with ECR that includes a Fifth-place end on the IMS highway course and a run to sixth within the 500, matches that of Grosjean, the still-sidelined ex-ECR driver, and one spot again of Ilott’s 2023 efficiency that noticed him unceremoniously reduce deep into the offseason. Solely time will inform whether or not Daly can ship the on-track efficiency, off-track relationships and the funding that powers all of it to rid himself of his ‘IndyCar nomad’ standing.
