INDIANAPOLIS — Noblesville's Conor Daly took his first laps in a stock car around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval during Friday's practice session for Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 250.
Daly has eleven starts (ten if you don't count 2015, when his engine blew before the start of the race) in the Indianapolis 500, but Friday was his first time racing around the IMS oval in a full-bodied stock car. He failed to qualify for last year's Xfinity race on the road course.
Impressively, Daly put his No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota third on the time charts.
Daly set a lap of 164.995 mph in practice, falling just behind Parker Kligerman and Chandler Smith. Smith was fastest overall, posting a lap of 166.756 mph.
Daly ran 19 total laps during the session and while the speed charts show Daly at the top, he's further toward the middle when it comes to his five-lap average time. Riley Herbst led all other cars with an average of 54.943 seconds over the course of five consecutive laps. Daly's five consecutive lap average of 56.368 seconds slotted him 21st out of the 28 cars that ran at least five consecutive laps.
Following Xfinity Series practice, Daly made the trek west to Indianapolis Raceway Park, where he will compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series T-Sport 200 Friday evening for Niece Motorsports.
A mechanical problem during qualifying means Daly will start the Truck race from the rear of the field.
Qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 250 is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. Saturday with the race to follow at 3:30 p.m.
Click here for the full results of Xfinity Series practice.
