Daly To Debut At Road America
While one former open wheeled driver, Katherine Legge, made her Xfinity Debut this weekend. Another, sat on the Pit Box of driver Ryan Reed learning the NASCAR “lingo”. Conor Daly, will make his debut next weekend in the Roush-Fenway Racing No. 6 at Road America. Conor Daly, like his friend and soon to be teammate, Ryan Reed has battled Type 1 diabetes. Daly says he has developed a great partnership thanks to the help of Reed and his long time sponsor, Lilly Diabetes.
“When I was diagnosed, no one else had it. So I didn’t know what was going on.” Daly adds that 12 years ago when I was diagnosed, I was still in go-karts. “I didn’t know if it was ok, or if it was a big issue.”
After that diagnosis, Daly made it a focus just to keep on going. In fact he said “I was in the hospital for 2 days, then back in a race car 4 days later.” Daly was just making the transition in to cars at that time. “I just kept going.” Daly also said that it never affected his driving, but now it’s just more work.
Inspiring Youth
It’s a really a cool story to now have my story out there along with Ryan (Reed) and Charlie Kimball. “If we can inspire just a couple of kids to continue to follow their dreams, then we are doing our jobs for sure.
Next Week Daly will pilot the No. 6 Ford and says this is all so new to me, I want to take in everything I can. I want to see how the cars race, I want to hear how the team talks on the radio. This weekend is all about learning for Daly so he can be prepared to jump in to the car at Road America. “These cars are so much different than anything I’ve ever driven. Daly said.
Daly adds that the Verizon IndyCar series is racing at such a high level. It’s very competitive, so having to race at 100% every lap is something that he wants to bring to NASCAR. “You’ve just got to be open minded though, when jumping in to the deep end of something so new.”
It will be a new experience, but if preperation is any indication, Conor Daly will battle the Xfinity Series field with the drive he’s shown battling Type 1 Diabetes.
