"It's like being stabbed in the face": Conor Daly gets blunt about unexpected twist at IndyCar Iowa race

Conor Daly has spoken his mind about the unexpected twist in Race 2 of IndyCar's Iowa double-header that saw him go from being in contention for a Top 5 to outside the Top 15. The incident in focus was Colton Herta's crash in the closing stages of the race, which brought out the caution and flipped the race on its head.

The front-running drivers who made their pit stops just before the caution found themselves towards the back of the grid. Race leader Josef Newgarden was one of them, and so was Conor Daly.

The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver started the race on the front row alongside pole-sitter Alex Palou. Moreover, his No. 76 Chevy had a good race pace to earn a Top 5 finish. However, Daly made his final pit stop just before the late caution and was relegated to outside the Top 15 when he came out of the pits.

In a recent episode of his Speed Street podcast, he spoke about the unfortunate and 'hurtful' twist.

"The yellow comes out at the worst possible time ever and literally completely flips our day and makes it a trash bin. This one hurt so badly because as a driver, it's really freakin' hard work to do this stuff," Conor Daly said. [7:34 onwards].

Continuing his unfiltered description of the setback, he added:

"We qualified the thing on the front row, ran up front all day. And to go from running third, fifth, fourth, whatever it is, to 16th, I mean, it's like being stabbed in the face, like right here underneath the eye, in the cheek. So I hate it for the fans and for our team."

Daly was one of the first drivers to bravely make use of the high line on the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway. Though the Race 2 result was disappointing, he fought hard but cleanly and left with at least one Top 10 finish, which he earned in Race 1, the Synk 275.

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Conor Daly sends a passionate message to fans questioning his emotions

Conor Daly straightforwardly expresses his emotions on social media and his podcast after each race weekend. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver also replies to his fans across social media platforms.

After the recent debacle at Iowa, Daly addressed the fans who would question when he would feel low after a subpar weekend. On the aforementioned podcast, he said [11:50 onwards]:

"A lot of people tweet at us, and a lot of fans are commenting. It's super simple to look at and say, 'Why did you do this, or why are you upset about this?' And I'm like, 'Because this is all that I do with my brain and my body. I train, we focus. This is really our work. We put our entire lives and existence into this. I live weekend by weekend because I don't know what's going to happen next weekend.'"

Conor Daly has yet to secure a Top 5 finish with JHR this season. The next IndyCar race weekend is in Toronto from July 18 to 20. The last time he raced there was in 2022 with Ed Carpenter Racing.

Edited by Mitali