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IndyCar veteran Conor Daly will drive the No. 78 car for Indianapolis-based Juncos Hollinger Racing for the remainder of the season, beginning with this weekend’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, the team announced Wednesday.
Daly is taking over for Agustin Canapino, who parted ways with the team last week after a series of social media firestorms.
“I am extremely pleased to reunite with (team co-owner) Ricardo Juncos after our success together in the Road to Indy,” Daly said, referring to the IndyCar feeder system. “Ricardo took a chance on me when I was young and it made a huge difference in my career. There are a lot of people on this team that I’ve worked with before and that gives me a lot of confidence.”
Canapino stepped away from Juncos Hollinger Racing in June before a race at Road America after disputing claims that rival driver Théo Pourchaire of Arrow McLaren Racing had received online death threats from Canapino’s fans following an on-track incident between the two. Arrow McLaren wound up severing its technical and marketing relationship with the team.
Another driver, former Juncos Hollinger teammate Callum Ilott, has said Canapino’s passionate fan base had made threatening comments last season. Ilott said he felt he never received support from the team and was released at the end of last season.
Meanwhile, Canapino’s performance also had been on a downward spiral. A string of five consecutive finishes of 18th or worse had dropped him to 23rd in the standings, and in danger of falling out of the top 22 of the $1 million Leaders Circle.
Daly will be driving for his third team this season. He drove from 29th to 10th in the Indianapolis 500 in an entry for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and he replaced the injured Jack Harvey for Dale Coyne Racing for a race at Iowa in July.
Daly will work with Juncos Hollinger teammate Romain Grosjean for the remainder of the season.
“Having Conor Daly back in a JHR car after many years is like a flashback to some great memories,” Juncos said. “We achieved a lot together. Now it’s time to focus on what’s ahead and aim for strong results for the rest of the NTT IndyCar Series season.”
In other news, Katherine Legge will be back in the No. 51 car for Dale Coyne Racing for Saturday night’s race near St. Louis.
Legge was in the car for the Indianapolis 500 and the doubleheader at Iowa, and now will continue with the ovals on the IndyCar schedule when she goes to World Wide Technology Raceway to drive alongside teammate Jack Harvey.
“Katherine has done a good job for us this year on the ovals and we’re happy to have her back this weekend in the 51 car,” team owner Dale Coyne said. “We’ve had success at that oval track in the past, so we look forward to seeing what Katherine and Jack will do this weekend.”
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this is the best news!!! I love Conor and he’s the man on Ovals. Let’s go Conor!
He’s the man??? He’s never won a race in a major series and his best finish in an Indy car season was 17th. More likely he’s the man who would work the cheapest. He may be a hometown boy, but the resume and the ‘tude are not impressive.