Daly buoyed by Mid-Ohio run

Conor Daly sent a friendly reminder throughout the Verizon IndyCar Series paddock on Sunday at Mid-Ohio that he hasn't forgotten how to drive. After suffering through a forgettable debut season to date with A.J. Foyt Racing, his fighting run to 10th place contained all the grit and determination that marked him as a talent on the rise.

He was a finisher inside the top six on five occasions last year with Dale Coyne Racing, stood on the podium one time, and hoped the call from Foyt to join Carlos Munoz in a retooled Chevy-powered team would take him to the next level. It hasn't happened, yet, but it was hard to ignore the change of fortunes last weekend when, for once, everything went right for his No. 4 program.

Munoz wasn't as fortunate as a poor qualifying session and unsuccessful race strategy ploy left the No. 14 Chevy driver mired in 18th at the finish. Despite being the Foyt driver with something to celebrate, Daly's first instinct was to stick up for his teammate.

"Carlos hasn't forgotten how to driver, either; he's just as talented as he's always been," the 25-year-old told RACER. "The fight was finally relevant for me – to be battling with [James Hinchcliffe] and Scott Dixon, that was a big step forward for us. To be in the hunt all weekend was great progress for the ABC Supply team.

Daly benefited from a mistake by Tony Kanaan in qualifying that cost the Brazilian his fastest lap and promoted the No. 4 Chevy into the Fast 12. He would use the rare break to his full benefit going forward, and even without Kanaan's error, Daly wasn't far away from making it into the Fast 12 on his own merit.

"Starting 11th was another big step; qualifying has been an issue for us all year," he said. "That's been the story, and by the end of the weekend, we get closer to being where we belong, but it's too late to have an impact. It was just really nice to be ahead of the curve going into the weekend after getting to test at Mid-Ohio, and finish stronger as a result of all we'd learned."

Finishing 10th wouldn't feel like much of an accomplishment for most drivers, but the fact that the Mid-Ohio result was the first top 10 Daly has earned without attrition (his seventh-place run at Texas was helped by the repeated multi-car pileups) speaks volumes about the progress they've made.

"It was nice to be able to get into that range of going hard against drivers and teams where I know we can be once we make more steps forward," he said. "And we do this as a team. We are two cars, but it's a small group. Both our race engineers are new for this year, and we're all building together. This weekend was a good time for us to have a strong, competitive outing. It came at a good point in the year. We were in the fight with some strong cars. We knew it would happen eventually, and were just wondering when. There were no issues, and this is the kind of feeling we want to have after more races."

A few weeks will pass until the next IndyCar race takes place at Pocono, and Daly is focused on keeping the spirit that produced the Mid-Ohio performance flowing.

"We just want to keep the positive momentum going," he said. "I think we're all leaving Mid-Ohio happy, and it's because we were making moves. It wasn't luck. We restarted 14th and made moves on the track to get to 10th. It was good decisions and hard work that made it possible, and we all want to hold onto it for Pocono, and Gateway, and the final races to close the year the best way we can.

"It's been a hard year for everyone. I appreciate them sticking with me as much as I've enjoyed sticking with them. It's a big team effort and we'll hopefully continue to have more results like the one we just did. If things go right for me and Carlos, we've seen the ABC Supply cars can be right in there with the best of them."