Conor Daly is making a surprise appearance on the streets of Toronto this weekend, jumping into the #88 Harding Racing Chevrolet in place of Gabby Chaves. Unable to secure a full-time ride for 2018, opportunities like these are what Daly fights for.
“This is the sport I love,” he told the TSN Racing Pod. “It’s been a rough road and we’ve had a rough few years. I’ve been at teams in building years.”
“It’s been a tough road, I’ve just been trying to do the best I can in the situations that I’ve got.”
Gabby Chaves, who has started every race thus far for Harding in their maiden full season, has stepped out of the car to make way for Daly this weekend. The team maintains that this is not in relation to Chaves’ performance, but solely to test the possibility of a second car in 2018. With Chaves still at the track with the team, Daly notes his gracious step out of the ride.
“Gabby [Chaves] has been very respectable and very awesome about this whole situation,” Daly said. “He gets it.”
Having been in building team operations before, Daly is very sympathetic to Chaves’ situation.
“It’s tough when you’re in that position,” he said. “At some point you start questioning yourself. I did it last year, but at some point I had to be like ‘I know we’re grip limited, I know we’re damper limited, I know we’re all still learning about the car.’”
That said, Daly holds a tremendous amount of respect for Harding Racing and the performance they have put together in their first full season.
“It’s very respectable, what they’ve done,” he said. “This is a very difficult game that we’re playing… You could list all of the teams and they’re playing at a very high level. To be the only one car team with no data from last year, and nothing you can look at.”
“For what they’ve done, it’s very respectable.”
While the team commits to rebuilding, Daly has committed to helping achieve that goal in his own way at Honda Indy Toronto. Despite only being confirmed for the one race, he holds nothing but high hopes for the team.
“I know they’re dying to try and add another car for next year, because then you take yourself to a whole other level,” he explained. “I hope they can do it, it’s obviously tough – it’s a business as well – but for right now I think you have to respect what they’ve done with a one-car operation.”
As for whether or not he is involved in those plans, Daly was fairly candid.
“If we can have an awesome day on Sunday and get a little luck on our side, maybe,” he said. “I don’t really have the sponsorship assistance that they might be looking for or I might just like to have to make me more appealing, but it is what it is. We’re going to do things day by day, attack it session by session.”
“At the end of the weekend, if they want to keep me around – awesome. If not, and I’ve accomplished what I think I can accomplish, then we’re all happy.”
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