Conor Daly to Pilot Carlin Entry at Texas Motor Speedway

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

Two weeks removed from his first start of the season in the 103^rd running of the Indianapolis 500, Conor Daly will get the chance to climb behind the wheel once more as he takes the reins of the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet in the DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The opportunity with Carlin comes on the heels of Daly’s 10^th place result at Indianapolis with Andretti Autosport and as Max Chilton, who normally drives the No. 59 entry elected not to run any of the remaining oval races in 2019.

Saturday night’s start at Texas, his third at the track, will be a reunion of sorts with Carlin for Daly, who drove for the team in the GP3 Series in Europe back in 2011.

It will also mark the sixth different team Daly has driven for in his NTT IndyCar Series career dating back to 2013. His previous starts have come with AJ Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Harding Steinbrenner Racing and Andretti Autosport.

In his two previous Texas starts, Daly’s best finish came with a seventh place result driving for Foyt in 2017.

“I want to thank everyone at Carlin and Gallagher for the opportunity to get back in a race car at Texas,” said Daly. “I thoroughly enjoyed working with Carlin back in 2011 as I started my European racing journey and to now drive for them in the NTT IndyCar Series is pretty special. I look forward to being able to contribute to the team as best I can.”

As for four-year IndyCar veteran Chilton, he will remain in the seat for the road and street courses still on the 2019 schedule, but will step aside for the oval races at Texas, Iowa Speedway, Pocono Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

“I would like to thank Gallagher for being supportive of my decision to not compete in the remaining oval races this season – I am extremely fortunate to have such a supportive partner,” said Chilton. “Risk Management is a central consideration of both Gallagher and myself in how we operate.

“I’m excited and pleased by the outstanding proactive work being done by INDYCAR around driver safety and the innovation of the solution developed in partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies that has created a new aero screen. The innovative solution will be the most advanced single seater driver head protection in the world and will be introduced in 2020.

“My focus remains on getting the best possible results for the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin crew and I will be helping the team and Conor in any way I can to that end.”

Daly and the rest of the IndyCar Series field will take to the track at Texas for the first time on Thursday, June 6 for practice before Saturday’s 248-lap main event (8:00 pm ET on NBC Sports Network).