NEWTON, Iowa – Conor Daly and Ryan Hunter-Reay had words in pit lane after Saturday’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 at Iowa Speedway.
Daly claimed Hunter-Reay drove him into the wall with two laps remaining, and Hunter-Reay claimed it was “spotter miscommunication.”
That Daly was dismissed by Ed Carpenter Racing after the June 4 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix and replaced by Hunter-Reay was not lost on the Meyer Shank Racing substitute driver.
“Isn’t it ironic?” Daly told NBCSports.com in his pit area.
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No, he wasn’t singing lyrics from the Alanis Morrisette song from the 1995 album, “Jagged Little Pill.”
Daly thought it was more than coincidental that the driver that replaced him after he was released from ECR was the driver that nearly put him in the wall during Saturday’s race.
NBC Sports reached Hunter-Reay after his team’s debrief following the race. The four-time Iowa Speedway winner, 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner and 2012 NTT IndyCar Series champion was incredulous that Daly was making it an issue.
“It was a miscommunication on the spotter side of it, I didn’t get the word he was there,” Hunter-Reay told NBC Sports. “I took my line, and he stayed high behind me. That’s what I’ve been told at least.
“There is no story to it.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay and Conor Daly discussing their late incident.
— Christopher DeHarde (@CDeHarde) July 22, 2023
RHR afterward said it was a spotter miscommunication.#HyVeeHomefront250 #IndyCar pic.twitter.com/NyuXLTNzi4
When Hunter-Reay came into Daly’s pit area, his spotter had told the driver to tell him to speak to his spotter.
As far as being the driver that replaced Daly at Ed Carpenter Racing, Hunter-Reay said, “Yeah, whatever. That’s a bunch of BS. There’s nothing there.
“It’s not like somebody took him out. He was behind me and got an aero wash, correct?”
Daly started 22nd and finished 21st in the No. 60 SiriusXM/AutoNation Dallara-Honda for Meyer Shank Racing. He is filling in for Simon Pagenaud, who has yet to be cleared to return to competition after a July 1 practice crash at Mid-Ohio.
“(Hunter-Reay) just ran me in the wall,” Daly told NBC Sports. “He said it was the spotter, talk to the spotter, but he flat-out ran me into the wall for no reason with two laps to go. It was a shame.
“It’s annoying. It doesn’t matter who it is. Not him specifically, but you hate to see that happen.
“He came to my pit, probably because he feels bad.
“It’s probably not malicious, but it’s oddly ironic.”
Got way better lap 2 of qualifying! Just keep learning every lap. A lot to get used to here with this @MeyerShankRac group and I didn’t get enough out of it. My fault. But we’ve got a great race car and I can’t wait to get going this afternoon @AutoNation @SIRIUSXM pic.twitter.com/U9D6mweBGH
— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) July 22, 2023
Mike Shank, the co-owner of the No. 60 being driven this weekend by Daly, said he hasn’t had a chance to look at the video but was told by Daly that he thought Hunter-Reay squeezed him and almost crashed.
“That’s our sport, for sure, and there is a lot of emotion,” Shank told NBC Sports. “Sometimes it gets heated.
“We almost crashed. It was a frustrating day, but it will blow over. I really haven’t gotten the impression that there is any harboring resentment from Conor Daly about that team.”
Hunter-Reay started 16th and finished 23rd in the No. 20 Bitnile.com Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing.
“We found out what we don’t want to be today, and we need to throw the kitchen sink at it for tomorrow,” Hunter-Reay said. “I spent the whole race trying not to crash the car.
“I was so preoccupied trying not to crash, it was just a long day.”
Both drivers get a chance to put Saturday’s incident behind them in the Hy-Vee One Step 250. Daly will start 15th and Hunter-Reay starts 25th.
“We are starting much further ahead and that is going to help,” Daly said. “We know we had pace today. We know we were fast enough to run up there. That last stint, even on older tires, we could run with Takuma Sato, and he was in the top 10.
“We got trapped by the yellow.”
