Daly shows well on short notice for MSR

Conor Daly shined on his unexpected return to the NTT IndyCar Series on Sunday at Mid-Ohio and sent a nice reminder to the paddock on the way to leading the Meyer Shank Racing team home in a clean drive from 27th to 20th in the No. 60 Honda.

Standing in for Simon Pagenaud, who suffered a brake failure and violent crash Saturday morning, Daly climbed into an unfamiliar car with a team he’d never driven for Sunday morning and made short work of the warmup session, firing the No. 60 into 12th, two spots behind new teammate Helio Castroneves in 10th.

Starting last in the 27-car field, the former Ed Carpenter Racing driver made a mistake-free run as many of his closest rivals spent the afternoon running into each other or running off course. Daly also managed to pass Castroneves at the end of the race and crossed the finish line less than one second behind his ECR replacement, Ryan Hunter-Reay.

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