Conor Daly will pilot the #88 Harding Racing Chevrolet with Harding Racing in place of Gabby Chaves at the upcoming Honda Indy Toronto, the team stated in a release.
Chaves’ leave from the car is unrelated to his performance on the track, but rather a testing opportunity for Harding Racing to move to a two-car operation in 2019.
“At this point in the season, we are focusing all our attention on the 2019 season,” Harding Racing team president Brian Barnhart explained in the release. “If we can expand to a two-car team, all remaining races and testing will offer driver evaluation opportunities to determine who will become Gabby’s teammate in 2019.”
”Gabby is still fully employed and still under contract with Harding for the remainder of this year and in 2019.”
Chaves started all 11 races to this point in the Verizon IndyCar Series season, the first full season for Harding Racing.
Daly, after not securing a full-time ride for the 2018 season, most recently competed in the Indianapolis 500 for Dale Coyne Racing with Thom Burns Racing. He finished P21. Previously, he completed two full seasons between Dale Coyne Racing and A.J. Foyt Enterprises with a best finish of P2 at Detroit in 2016.