LEBANON, Tenn. — Starting 25th gave Conor Daly a massive job to do in Sunday’s (Aug. 31) Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway to close out the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season. After 225 laps, the Noblesville, Ind. native was in fifth place, just over two seconds behind race winner Josef Newgarden.
Daly moved up to 19th at the start of the race and gained another three positions on the restart following Christian Rasmussen‘s first lap wall contact in turn 2. The 2010 Star Mazda Champion cracked the top 10 for the first time in racing conditions on lap 122 out of the scheduled 225 and knew what he had underneath him.
“Very first stint, I knew we were good,” Daly said. “Especially when we passed like 10 cars in three laps or something like that, So it was just slowly, like it was similar to Milwaukee podium last year. I mean, every stint just progress, progress, you know? The team had good pit stops. I missed my marks on one stop, which was tough, but yeah, we just had to make it work and we took a gamble a little bit with the strategy too at the end. And you know, if it went green, I think it would have worked out, but just put us a little bit on the struggle bus there for the last restart.”
Pato O’Ward‘s lap 126 accident required a lengthy yellow and on the restart Daly moved from eighth to fifth in two laps. The No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet moved up to fourth on lap 157 when Alexander Rossi pitted from second place and remained there for much of the rest of the race until a late yellow for Scott McLaughlin‘s light wall contact on lap 204.
Daly and his team gambled on a late strategy call to run the final of his two mandated stints on the red sidewall alternate compound Firestone tires. As a result, he had to fend off the rest of the field on the restart and was a sitting duck, losing fourth to Kyffin Simpson and nearly losing fifth to Kyle Kirkwood. However, Daly maintained his position and earned his first top-five finish since Milwaukee’s first race in 2024.
After the difficult start to the weekend, it’s easy to think that Daly was happy with his finish, but there was disappointment in not finishing higher.
“If we were on the black tire I think at the end, it becomes a different game, but obviously, you know, Josef is so good on these places and he wanted to win so bad. I was staying at his house a couple of days ago and that guy, all he cares about is winning, so I respect it.”
Daly was 19th-fastest in Saturday afternoon practice and had a qualifying effort to match how bad his car was at the start of the weekend. The team made several changes to the car that made all the difference in the world.
“I mean, from where we started this weekend, I thought all hope was lost,” Daly said. “And it was a tough qualifying effort, but I think we found something in this car today that we haven’t tried the entire rest of the season.”
Daly wouldn’t exactly elaborate on what was changed but did give some insight as to how much of the car was changed.
“We changed everything but the color of the car, essentially, and we wanted to go a certain route that we thought was going to work and it did and it was awesome. So, really proud of the team for taking a chance, and we had to take a chance and we did.”
Juncos Hollinger Racing has yet to confirm its 2026 driver lineup. The team brought Daly in to help the entrant points for its then-numbered No. 78 entry and his late season performances helped confirm him in the drive. JHR team manager David O’Neill was very proud of the team’s results today and their progress this season.
“It’s fantastic; you know we’ve had a few struggles during the season,” O’Neill said. “Of course we’ve always known that the car is good. Obviously the driver’s good as well. So I think the important bit is that … I mean it would have been nice to be on the podium, but we had a couple of issues stopping us getting there on the restart. So yeah, all in all, a result like that certainly lifts a team, and we can go and prepare for next season.”
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.