Photo credit: Meyer Shank Racing
On Sunday morning Conor Daly was announced as the substitute driver for the #60 Meyer Shank Racing car for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Daly, who had been released from Ed Carpenter Racing after the Detroit Grand Prix, replaces regular driver Simon Pagenaud, who was involved in a harrowing barrel roll crash during practice on Saturday and has still not been cleared to race.
In the team press release, team co-owner Michael Shank said: “We cannot thank everyone at Indycar, the AMR Indycar safety team and the Indycar medical team for everything they did to get Simon out and evaluated as quickly as possible.[…] To walk away from an accident like that is incredible.” Pagenaud will have two weeks to recuperate before Indycar’s next race at Toronto.
In Daly’s view, “The most important thing is to get him as healthy as possible, as soon as possible. This is his car and his group of folks and I am here to do the best job that I can for this team. I’ve known Mike [Shank] for a long time and I’ve tested for his sports car team many years ago. I’ve always had a lot of respect for this organization. It’s an honor to be a part of this group and fill in – we will just do the best job that we can.“
Shank thanked Daly “for being here and stepping into this, he’s been super great through all of the chaos. Now we will get back on our feet and see what we can do in the race.”
They will have their work cut out for them; with no qualifying laps turned, Daly will start 27th for the race, and while his results on ovals have far outshone his road course efforts, two of his eight top-ten finishes on road/street courses have come at Mid-Ohio.
Any result will be an important result for Meyer Shank Racing, with the #60 tied for the final Leaders’ Circle spot at the halfway point of the season. Shank said Daly may have a good luck charm under his seat, however: “It’s actually Helio’s Indy 500 car and the one he won the 500 with in 2021.”
