Lexington, OH (July 31, 2016) – Both Dale Coyne Racing drivers impressed today at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course during the Honda Indy 200. Conor Daly led 22 laps and moved up 16 positions to finish sixth while rookie RC Enerson set the third fastest lap of the race and the fastest Honda lap in his Verizon IndyCar Series debut.
Both drivers went on an alternate pit strategy early on in the race with Daly pitting on Lap 9 and Enerson on Lap 10. The strategy worked for the first part of the race with Daly running sixth and Enerson seventh after 35 laps.
Three laps later, things took a turn for Enerson. A fuel meter error coupled with an aggressive pit call ruined his race. Having lost fuel pressure in pit lane, the crew had issues restarting the car and the 19-year-old wound up 21st, two laps down following his lengthy stop.
Despite the set back, Enerson went on to gain a lap back and cross the finish line in 19th.
In the meantime, Daly was making his way to the front. However, the driver of the #18 Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality car had to make an early pit stop due to a flat spotted tire. The early stop meant that Daly was about seven laps short of making it to finish.
Daly picked up the lead under a full course caution on lap 63. Following the restart, knowing that he didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the end, he built a gap of nearly 10 seconds before entering pit lane for a splash of fuel with five laps remaining.
The American exited the pits in ninth place and took the checkered flag in sixth, his third sixth place finish this season.
The Dale Coyne Racing team will be back in action on August 21 at Pocono Raceway.
What they have to say:
Conor Daly – #18 Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality
“I figured out the car in the middle of the race, we kept locking the right front up so easily and I kept sailing off, even in the race. As soon as I sorted the brake bias, the car was amazing. We had to pit because the right front tire was destroyed. Because of that, we were about seven laps short of making it to the end at that point. We knew we couldn’t make it to the end so why not keep going and pushing. I tried to nail every single lap. We had a good enough car to stay up front and pull the gap that we needed. Sixth is about as good as we could’ve done in that scenario. I was just happy to pull away and lead like that for a stint. These guys kept their faith in me because I have driven the car off course all weekend. I’m just glad we could have a good finish.
RC Enerson – #19 Boy Scouts of America
“We were really quick out there, the guys gave me a great car. We were the fastest Honda so that’s a plus side and we were quick all race but it just didn’t turn out our way. A lot of excitement today, but also a little bit of disappointment because I know we had a good car and we could have done a lot better but I’m pretty tired, my neck and my hands especially, so I have to work on that but we’ll keep pushing for it. For my debut, it really couldn’t have gone any better. Of course we would have liked to finish further up but this was a good start.”
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