For Conor Daly, the Indianapolis 500 has always been his main passion.

Daly grew up in Noblesville and graduated from Heritage Christian School in 2010. His father, Derek Daly, drove in both Formula One and IndyCar.

“It’s been a great event for me,” Daly said. “I love driving here. I love putting in the work during the practice, the qualifications and Carb Day. Everything about it is just the best thing in the world.”

Daly and teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay drive for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

Daly qualified 29th and will start his 11th Indianapolis 500 May 26 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Daly finished eighth in 2023, sixth in 2022, 13th in 2021 and 10th in 2019. He led the most laps of any driver (40) in 2021 before a flying tire damaged the nose of his car.

Now, he is adjusting to a new team for an Indy 500-only ride. Daly left Ed Carpenter Racing after 3 1/2 seasons in June 2023.

“It’s a new environment, so there will be some things to work on with the team and new relationship with the engineer and we communicate better each day,” Daly said. “I feel great about what the team has done, preparation wise. It seems like everything is in the right place to be competitive. I feel like I have the right experience to use and deliver for the team. I’m thrilled to have another chance to compete in this race and go after the win.”

Daly expects to compete in a couple of NASCAR Craftsman’s Truck Series races later in the year. He has competed in four NASCAR Truck races in previous years. He also has competed in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Daly has a weekly podcast with Chase Holden called “Speed Street.”

“I love talking about IndyCar racing and hopefully giving people a closer look at the sport we love so much and devote so much time to,” Daly said.

Holden replaced comedian Joey Mulinaro on the podcast this year because Mulinaro wanted to devote more time to family and other projects, Daly said.

“We need to work harder than ever to get our sport out to people,” said Daly, who also has a YouTube channel, ConorDaly22. “IndyCar is under-appreciated and it’s something that is not discovered by enough people, so we just have to do everything we can to get it out to more NASCAR fans, more Formula One fans to show we have such an incredible product in the series.”