Conor Daly finished third in the first race of IndyCar’s double-header weekend from The Milwaukee Mile, giving Juncos Hollinger Racing its first ever podium in the top level of the series.
Daly’s evening started with him lining up near the back of the field. A penalty for an engine change placed him in 25th when the green flags waved, behind nearly every other driver.
He steadily moved forward for the first portion of the race, but it was a well-timed caution that vaulted him from 10th to fourth with less than 50 laps remaining.
He passed Santino Ferrucci to move into the podium positions, one of 51 passes he made on the night, and never looked back.
When the 32-year-old climbed onto the podium, the crowd cheered nearly as loudly as it did for race winner Pato O’Ward, which is a hard mark to match.
Daly’s only other podium in IndyCar came in 2016 at Belle Isle in Detroit, marking an astonishingly large gap between his first and second champagne celebrations.
“This group around me has been just so supportive,” said Daly after the race. “Even after the first two races, like I said on TV, I’m sure everyone was… Well, we thought it was going to be great.
“I know I can run at the front with these guys. The car gave me the opportunity to do that. I can only do what the car will allow me to do. They gave me that chance. We made the right moves when we needed to.
“But yeah, what the future holds? I have no idea. Thankfully I got next week planned and the weekend after that. After that, we’re kind of just back to the drawing board.”
Daly is filling in for Agustin Canapino for the final five races of the year after the Argentinian was released from his contract early.
The arrangement put Daly back at a team that helped him launch his racing career in the Star Mazda championship in 2010.
JHR has advanced into the top level series in that time, just as Daly did, but the team has yet to find the success it found in the lower levels of the sport.
“Feels like family,” continued Daly. “I won Ricardo [Juncos’] first American championship for him and got him his first IndyCar podium. Feel like that’s got to count for something.
“It truly is, I think, a very underrated group. They’re so smart. There’s a lot of talented folks there. They deserve this, for sure, because it’s been a very unlucky year for them. Obviously, I felt it the last two weeks.
“This is the first race we’ve been together where we haven’t been spun at least once. That’s positive. I think tomorrow can only be better, I hope.”
Daly’s result helps to boost the #78 entry into the Leader’s Circle positions, which results in a very important monetary payout from the series at the end of the year.
He will look to pad those results even further on Sunday, when he will from 20th and will attempt to climb through the field once again.
