Action sports star Travis Pastrana and IndyCar standout Conor Daly are among the group of six drivers from non-chartered teams qualifying for the last four available starting positions in the 40-car DAYTONA 500 field. Two of the Open qualifiers will make the race based on qualifying speed from Wednesday night’s pole qualifying session. The final two starting positions will be filled from Thursday night’s Duel qualifying races.
It would be the DAYTONA 500 debut for both Pastrana and Daly, should they qualify for the race.
Daly, 31, whose best IndyCar Series finish was runner-up in Belle Isle, Mich. in 2016, was all smiles speaking about his first attempt to the make the DAYTONA 500. Although he’s competed in two Rolex 24 at Daytona sportscar races, Daly’s very first laps on the 2.5-mile high-banked oval will be Wednesday night in pole qualifying.
He has spent a lot of time on simulators to get used to the car and the track. And he said he’s spoken with drivers A.J. Allmendinger, Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, two-time DAYTONA 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and three-time DAYTONA 500 winner Denny Hamlin.
“I just love this sport,” said Daly, who will drive The Money Team’s No. 50 Chevrolet. “There are a lot of fan bases that are like, ‘we’re only NASCAR,’ or ‘we’re only IndyCar, we’re only F1.’ I like them all, so I don’t know why we can’t do more of that and hopefully there is a little bit more love spread to all of them as we try to do a little bit of both NASCAR and IndyCar at the same time.”
Pastrana, 39, who will drive the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, earned one of his four career top-10 NASCAR finishes at the Daytona International Speedway – a 10th place effort in the 2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the high banks. As with Daly, he wished there was an opportunity to practice, but he also put time in on the simulators and does have the benefit of competing the full 2013 season in the Xfinity Series.
Pastrana, an X Games gold medalist and champion in a number of disciplines from supercross to rally racing, is entered in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on Friday as well planning to run in his first DAYTONA 500 on Sunday.
“Every single driver has gone so far out of the way,” Pastrana said of the reaction to his Daytona participation. “Even when they say, ‘It’s the Good Ole Boy Club,’ no, it’s the opposite of that where these guys are truly excited to have someone new and assuming that I will do my job. Everyone is equally as excited to help me because they don’t want me to cause the big one. And I appreciate that.”
