A bump in the road can’t slow driver down

Daly says he was helped by sponsor flap

INDIANAPOLIS – Conor Daly and his fans worried about the long-term effect of the strange twist the journeyman racer faced last August.

With Daly about to make his NASCAR debut at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Lilly Diabetes pulled its decals off his car to distance itself from comments Derek Daly, Conor’s father, made decades earlier. The debut was highly anticipated and widely hyped, as Conor lives with Type 1 diabetes.

“At first we thought it was going to be a disaster,” he said Thursday on Indianapolis 500 media day.

“It was awkward, just a weird scenario. Business-wise, it’s just hard in racing in general. But it was a weird time, for

sure.”

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly was summarily roasted on social media and has since left racing and the 27-yearold, Indy-born Daly became racing’s most sympathetic figure of the moment.

This season, Daly has been racing sports cars this season in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series and has a strong deal for the 103rd Indianapolis 500. He'll start 11th Sunday, driving for Andretti Autosport, the team that has won four of the past six.

“Thankfully the partners I had, the U.S. Air Force, they’ve stayed so true to what they’re trying to do and they’ve been really faithful to me, and that’s awesome," Daly said.

"I can’t complain. If anything it’s only helped me.”

Daly dropped out 10 laps short of the finish at Road America in what thus far has been his only NASCAR start.

“I’d kill to drive another stock car on a road course,” Daly said. “It was fun.”

The driving part, anyway.

A welcome surprise

Aaron Telitz came to Indy expecting to spend time observing and hanging out with Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan, learning about the 500 and IndyCar. A native of Birchwood, Wisconsin, Telitz came up through openwheel ladder but stalled out because of financing and has been racing sports cars for Vasser-Sullivan and testing a variety of other race cars.

Mequon businessman Brian Belardi showed up with a complement of three Indy Lights cars but, because of some contract trouble, only two drivers.

“He called me Monday night and said, ‘You know, I’ve got my gear,’” Belardi said of Telitz, who had driven for him the previous two seasons. “I was like, ‘hah-hah,’ and he said, ‘No, I really think I can get something done for this race.’”

So there was Telitz – who had tested a rallycross car and raced a midget this season – strapping into a Lights car Thursday for final practice for Friday’s Freedom 100, the biggest race of the series’ season.

Telitz qualified sixth, behind four Andretti Autosport entries and alongside teammate Lucas Kohl. Nineteen-yearold America rookie Robert Megennis will start on the pole for the race at noon Milwaukee time.

What if it rains?

When the final round of the Masters golf tournament last month went off early because of the prediction of rain – allowing the event to finish on the scheduled day – IMS officials took notice.

“I think it’s very unlikely in our scenario that we would do that, although I wouldn’t rule it out,” track President