DAYTONA BEACH, Fla: Conor Daly’s last 36 hours at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway would be enough to send any race car driver over the edge.
After being one of six open cars vying for four spots available to make the Daytona 500 grid, Daly’s return to The Money Team has been emotional to say the least.
Hoping to secure himself into his second NASCAR Cup Series race by producing one of the two fastest laps among his non-chartered teams in Wednesday night’s Daytona 500 qualifying session, Daly’s No. 50 BitNile.com Chevrolet Camaro never happened after the team experienced a mechanical setback.
Without a lap on the track – a lap on the 2.5-mile superspeedway and believing he had a one in a million chance of making the “Great American Race” – the old sayin’ “it isn’t over, until it’s over” could not have played more into Daly’s hands than it did during Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel No. 2.
Things were rocky – literally before the start of the 60-lap qualifying race.
As Daly’s race car left pit road, the back of the automobile began shaking and wobbling violently immediately drawing concern from the cockpit as Daly believed he was embracing yet another mechanical issue.
Knowing a trip to pit road as the race began would doom their chances of making the DAYTONA 500, Daly kept his automobile on the track and wrestled the car to the best of his ability.
Losing the draft early, a debris caution in the opening laps of the duel allowed Daly to come to pit road to crew chief Tony Eury Jr. where throwing everything but the kitchen sink went into full effect.
Thankfully, the changes worked, and the car became somewhat drivable.
Unfortunately, during a long span of green flag racing, Daly’s attempt to remain in the lead draft eventually went by the waste side with the son of Motorsports veteran Derek Daly falling a lap down to the leaders.
When it appeared that Daly’s attempt to make the DAYTONA 500 would fall short, a multi-car accident on Lap 40 collected Austin Hill.
Before the accident, Austin Hill looked assured of propelling Bearden Motorsports into its second consecutive Daytona 500 – but the damage proved to be too much to overcome and handed Daly and Floyd Mayweather’s team their moment in the spotlight of qualifying for the DAYTONA 500.
“Well, we were inherently unlucky for the last 36 hours, but we got lucky,” Daly said. “I wish I could have said that I drove it in on pure pace, but it was just crazy.
“When we went out there, the car was bouncing around. I had no idea what was going on. I thought the drivetrain was broken, and Tony just made it better every time. We got lucky with the yellows to try to get some experience, but it is pretty crazy.
“This race, I’ve watched it for so many years and so much crazy stuff can happen, and thankfully we were on the right side of the craziness. It’s pretty amazing.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email: [email protected].
