Conor Daly ended the 2021 IndyCar season with no job and uncertain the place his racing profession was headed. Nearly a 12 months later, he is introduced a brand new sponsor to motorsports that not solely shored up Daly’s future however now has him ready to make his NASCAR Cup Collection debut.
Daly will enter his first profession Cup race subsequent week on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the place he’ll drive for The Cash Group Racing.
The No. 50 Chevrolet is owned by retired boxer Floyd Mayweather and can be sponsored by BitNile Holdings, Inc., a a diversified holding firm Daly persuaded to again an IndyCar program over cocktails in Las Vegas.
BitNile agreed to a multiyear deal to sponsor Daly in IndyCar for Ed Carpenter Racing and has so loved its first season that govt chairman Todd Ault approached Daly after the Laguna Seca season finale to see if he was thinking about working a Cup race.
Was he ever.
“I’ve all the time lived a lifetime of you by no means know what is going on to occur tomorrow and there is quite a lot of loopy issues which have occurred in my profession for positive,” Daly informed The Related Press. “However realistically, I’ve a man behind me in Todd Ault and everybody at BitNile which might be really, really having fun with the motorsports enterprise and what it does for them.
“And as a driver, that is your dream. Have a look at (NASCAR driver) Aric Almirola and (sponsor) Smithfield. These guys would go to bat for Almirola each time. That is clearly Yr Certainly one of my relationship with BitNile, however it’s offering me a chance that I’ve by no means had earlier than.”
Daly was in Charlotte, North Carolina, this week first for a seat becoming after which a Friday session within the Chevrolet simulator. It is going to be the fourth race for Mayweather’s upstart staff, which used driver Kaz Grala within the Daytona 500, at Circuit of the Americas and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Grala completed a season-best twenty third on Charlotte’s oval and has not completed decrease than twenty sixth.
Daly made one Xfinity Collection begin in 2018, adopted by one Truck Collection begin in 2020 and once more in 2021. He simply accomplished his eighth season in IndyCar and probably the most secure 12 months of his profession. The 30-year-old Indianapolis native had pieced collectively partial schedules and seasons cut up amongst groups earlier than BitNile funded a full 17-race program for him at Carpenter.
Mayweather, in the meantime, has but to make an official look on the observe and his new NASCAR staff has fallen in need of early season-predictions to run upwards of 15 races. He stated in an announcement that Daly’s entry at The Roval is a part of TMT’s development.
“We have come a good distance in a brief period of time and I do know that the long run could be very vibrant for us,” Mayweather stated. “With exhausting work and dedication, we’ll proceed to climb the ladder on this sport. That is an thrilling step and I can not wait to see what’s subsequent.”