Conor Daly lands full-time IndyCar ride with Juncos Hollinger Racing

On December 19, 2024By Littum

Just over 18 months ago it appeared his full-time American open-wheel dreams were over, Conor Daly‘s IndyCar the career has risen from the ashes.

Daly, the Indiana native who has driven in IndyCar for nearly a dozen teams, will drive full-time for Junco’s Hollinger Racing in 2025, the team announced Wednesday, completing an overhaul of JHR’s two-car lineup that has had five drivers over the past two seasons and will add a sixth in 2025 in Daly’s new teammate, Sting Ray Robb.

In Daly, team co-owners Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger add a driver who has consistently put together top-10 finishes in the Indy 500 — four times with three different teams — and excels on ovals, an important addition to a program that has only two oval top-10s since his return to full-time competition in 2021.

That performance level shined this year as Daly entered the final five races for JHR, posting a pair of oval top-10s — including the team’s first podium in Race 1 of the Milwaukee Mile doubleheader. Daly, who turned 33 on Sunday, also delivered JHR’s first championship of any kind in 2010 in what is now the USF Pro 2000.

“When Conor rejoined us last year, it felt like we seamlessly picked up where we left off in 2010,” Ricardo Juncos said in a press release. “I’m thrilled to have him back in the car full-time in 2025.”

Added Daly: “After the excitement and success we shared in 2024, including Milwaukee, it feels like the perfect next step. I’m grateful for Ricardo and Brad’s faith in me as I set about revitalizing my career. I see looking forward to chasing podiums and victories with this incredible group.”

Daly will be seen as a speaker whose performance will ultimately set the course for JHR’s near-term future.

This project, which Juncos and Hollinger began in late summer 2021, already feels like it is in its fourth unique phase in a relatively short space of time: a one-car team with Callum Ilott occasionally flashing competition speed; two cars during a rocky season that featured more off-track stories than on; and one that replaced young hotshot Ilott with noted ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean, hoping his global popularity and Agustin Canapino’s Argentine fanfare would generate sponsorships.

A team that rarely had sponsorship stickers in 2024, there’s a reason JHR has a new lineup, with Robb providing what is believed to be the biggest sponsorship endorsement on the free agent market and Daly bringing the potential of a $3 check million from Polkadot, his Indy 500 and NASCAR sponsor through the 2024 season, along with other smaller deals he had already accumulated as he navigated the murky waters of free agency yet another time.

In August, Daly pitched the Polkadot community to a $7.5 million sponsorship package that would have seen him completely change his career and drive full-time in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series while only driving the 500 in a one-off with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. After the program was heavily voted down, and with Grosjean simultaneously working in the background to gather new partners to try to hold on to his place, there were moments when it was unclear whether Daly’s IndyCar career would continue.

Just a few months later, he has found his fourth full-time home – previously racing with Dale Coyne Racing (2016), AJ Foyt Racing (2017) and Ed Carpenter Racing (2022-23). Should he manage to hold on to this seat for a full two seasons – ECR cut Daly midway through his second full-time campaign following inconsistent results and tensions within the team – or longer, this option represents one that looks to have the building blocks of a long-term partnership .

“Our main priority this year is to build on the success we’ve seen in the team’s short three-year campaign,” JHR team principal Dave O’Neill said in a press release. “With Conor joining the team and Sting Ray already confirmed, we are well positioned to achieve that. This is just the beginning of a long-term process to build a stronger and more competitive foundation for the future.”

However, Daly is set to take over 4th all-time in series starts without a win. He is currently 6th at 115. His career-best points finish of 17th, which came in 2022 in a season with ECR with a 5th at the IMS road course and a run to 6th in the 500, matches Grosjean , the still out of the ECR driver, and one place behind Ilott’s performance in 2023 that saw him unceremoniously cut deep into the low season. Only time will tell if Daly can deliver the on-track performance, off-track relationship and financing that drives it all to shed his ‘IndyCar nomad’ status.