Things could only get better for Conor Daly after a start to the season that has included flips and having a bucket of ice poured on his head to help with overheating in the cockpit.

Where everything that could go wrong did go wrong from Round 1 to Round 4, the Indiana native put the the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy and his prodigious talent to work on Friday and earned a career-best road course starting position of P6. ECR teammate Rinus VeeKay has recorded better finishes, but Daly has showed solid speed in qualifying this year with an early 2-1 edge on his young stablemate.

“Today was a very, very exciting day for me!” said Daly. “My first time in the Firestone Fast 6 – it took me a while to get there! We’ve done a lot of work to get this car to suit my driving style a bit more and today was a great example of that work paying off.”

With VeeKay on the next row in seventh, ECR should be a contender in the 85-lap race.

“We have a really great starting spot for tomorrow,” Daly added. “I am very, very happy with what the Ed Carpenter Racing team has done. To be able to do this for MannKind and NeedleFreeInsulin.com in their first race is super fantastic. Can’t wait to go into battle tomorrow!”