Daly and DRR era launches with Barber IndyCar test

Monday, October 26, 2026 marked Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s return to full-time competition in the IndyCar Series when Conor Daly took to the track with DRR’s No. 24 Honda.

Despite all of the annual runs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a brief return for a part-time campaign in 2020, it’s been 4,901 days since DRR’s last race as a regular entrant was completed, and with the long passage of time since the Indianapolis-based organization appeared at a road course, Monday’s outing was more of a systems check — closer to a day-long rehearsal than a traditional hardcore effort that was focused solely on finding speed.

“Honestly, there's just a lot operationally that we got to get into and make sure so many different things work, right?” Daly told RACER. “You know, everything outside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Our team obviously has been so used to getting everything done at IMS, and so getting the road crew going, and everyone locked in, was important. Honda was really helpful for us.

“But today it was very much just a day of trying to get through as much as possible, learn a lot of the componentry for the Honda the Honda side for our guys. What do we need to look for? But we had no issues, no technical issues. The only time we went down in the day was because I needed a different steering shaft because the steering wheel was a little bit too close to me, and that's the type of thing you got to sort out on day one. So it was it was a good day for us.”

Daly and DRR were third among the four drivers in motion on Monday as ECR’s Hunter McElrea led the group with a 1m07.557s lap ahead of Dale Coyne Racing’s Alex Dunne at 1m07.674s, Daly’s 1m07.830s, and Nikita Johnson’s 1m08.020s in the Coyne car Dunne drove in the morning.

Daly says he will have to adjust his driving style to better suit his new Honda engine. James Black/Penske Entertainment

Daly would have loved to lead the test on the team's first day back on a road course but says the biggest benefit to the outing was found with working together with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which is participating in a technical alliance with DRR.

“I’ve really got to give a shout out to the RLL guys as well,” he said. “The RLL guys have been super helpful working together with us on this process too. So, they deserve a big shout out. Some people might not be as open to helping get a group off the ground like us, but they have been nothing but welcoming and nothing but using this as a team effort, and that is something that we're obviously super thankful for. There's a lot that goes into it, and we're just ticking off little things here and there, and then trying to get into some of the setup changes that we think we can start to evaluate.”

Renowned for his oval prowess, Daly has a goal for 2027 with DRR: to change the narrative associated with his name.

“The whole goal that I have is just to get rid of this ridiculous stigma of the ‘oval guy’ thing,” he said. “I couldn't hate that more. I've been a road course and street course guy ever since birth. Essentially, that's what I started on, and that's where I've got some of my best results in IndyCar. So we're really focused on dialing in the road course stuff and really making sure that we take advantage of every lap, and I'm pushing myself harder than ever. We were quick today, and it was it was actually really cool to feel the what the RLL team has had at that track. It is a bit of a different philosophy to what I've been used to before. And, also, the Honda.

“The Honda drives very differently compared to the Chevy, so that is also a shift in my driving style. How you apply the power every time in first and second gear is a much different experience. So, all those things we just tried to really get after today, and we were definitely fast. I even did a 360 on my fastest lap coming over the crest at Turn 13, so we didn’t get to complete what would have been my best lap, but we know what we have. It was fun. Just tried to push it to the limit and get a lot of notes for whenever we go out next.”