Conor Daly is headed back to IndyCar full-time to complete Juncos Hollinger Racing’s (JHR) driver line-up for the 2025 season.
The Veteran Driver is Heading Into His 12th Racing Season After A Successful Part-Time Stint
The announcement was made Wednesday morning and confirmed via IndyCar’s official social media accounts as well as JHR’s socials. Daly raced part-time with the team this past season, competing in five out of the 17 races on the schedule. One notable moment was securing a podium finish in last season’s race at Milwaukee Mile.
Daly is the second and final contract signing that needed to be announced by the team. He’ll be teammates with Sting Ray Robb. Robb is entering his first year with JHR but this will be his third season overall as a full-time driver.
We are happy to announce Conor Daly will compete full-time for us in 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES! #JHR #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/Wpn3OPFSlY
— Juncos Hollinger Racing (@juncoshollinger) December 18, 2024
A Brief Look at Daly’s 2024 Season With JHR
Daly’s career within IndyCar has been a bit of an unusual one. He’s raced part-time for the majority of his career going from team to team. His most recent full-time spot was with Ed Carpenter Racing back in 2022-2023. However, he was dropped from the team in June 2023 and replaced by Ryan Hunter-Reay.
On February 1, 2024, it was confirmed that Conor Daly would be racing the No. 24 car for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing / Cusick Motorsports as the team’s additional entry into the Indy 500. Ryan Hunter-Reay was also confirmed as an entry, driving the No. 23 for the team.
After qualifying near the back of the grid, Daly battled his way through the grid and ended up finishing the race in P10. A finish in the top 10 solidified his return to IndyCar.
Daly also raced for Dale Coyne during the second race in Iowa after Jack Harvey was unable to compete due to neck pains.
On August 7, JHR announced that they parted ways with Agustín Canapino and Daly was going to race for the team for the remainder of the 2024 season. During his return to JHR, Daly competed in five races which included two finishes within the top 10.
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Podium Potential
The Milwaukee Mile was a moment where tons of drivers had the chance to shine. Pato O’Ward got to celebrate a victory during race one and Josef Newgarden won race two.
The winners weren’t the only ones who had something to celebrate that weekend though. It was Conor Daly who had a podium finish during race one, bringing the No. 78 home to P3. The podium was rounded out by Will Power who came in second and pushed his championship battle.
The result marked Daly’s career-best finish since 2016 as well as JHR’s first podium finish in IndyCar. According to the IndyCar website, the most passes by any driver during the season was 51 which is what Daly was able to pull off during Race 1.
It’s performances like this that may have helped persuade the team over at JHR to offer Daly that full-time spot. After a race riddled with cautions, he made his way through the traffic and snagged 35 points for the team.
What This Means for JHR
JHR has an interesting driver lineup on their hands, but it’s one that’s known to work. They have a young up-and-coming driver in Sting Ray Robb and a veteran driver with Daly. After that stint in Milwaukee, there’s no doubt that the team will want to find a way to build and maintain that momentum throughout the 2025 season.
With a podium finish and finishing P10 in Nashville, Daly has already proved how easy it was for him to adjust to the car and get straight to business. JHR is still a relatively new team on the grid having joined in 2017 before they took a short break and rejoined in 2021.
They’ll be looking for their drivers to perform well under pressure and not shy away from on-track battles. While Sting Ray Robb may have less experience, he made nearly a 40-point improvement between his first and second seasons.
JHR seems like a team that will be a bit of the underdog next season. They have the drivers, and it seems like they have a car that works in their favor. Depending on what improvements are made before the season starts in March, JHR and Conor Daly could find themselves winning a few races.
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