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Conor Daly replacing Simon Pagenaud at IndyCar Mid-Ohio

The developing story at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course involves Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda, where the team will have Conor Daly driving in place of Simon Pagenaud, who endured a wild ride in Saturday morning’s practice. The car went off the track in Turn 4 and rolled nearly seven times through the gravel trap. Pagenaud was not injured, but he will be re-evaluated in advance of the next race, the Honda Indy Toronto on July 14-16.

The car Daly will drive was the team’s backup for this race, but it is also the car Helio Castroneves has used in the past two Indianapolis 500s, including 2021 when he won his record-tying fourth “500.” Daly has eight Mid-Ohio starts in this series, leading 22 laps and finishing sixth as a rookie in 2016. As a replacement driver, he will start at the rear of the 27-car field.

“Will do my best to fill in for (Pagenaud) today!” Daly tweeted. “Was happy to see him get out of the car safely yesterday. Tough to get in (the car) under these circumstances but I appreciate the chance to work with the incredible people (at MSR).”

Colton Herta rolled to a second consecutive pole-winning performance to capture the NTT P1 Award, which came after an impressive lap of 1 minute, 6.3096 seconds around the 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural terrain circuit.

Overall, it was a jaw-dropping qualifying outing by Honda, which swept the entire Firestone Fast Six led by Herta’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Autosport. Starting alongside Herta on the front row is Graham Rahal (pictured above) in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda, which is his highest start since early in the 2019 season when he matched the same qualifying position at Barber Motorsports Park. Honda-powered cars will start in the first six positions for the first time since the knockout qualifying format was implemented for road courses and street circuits.

Coverage for the 80-lap contest will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. The 30-minute warmup is at 10:30 a.m. (Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).

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