DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After yet another setback, Beth Boles needed to do something. She could only handle so much as she watched her son, Conor Daly, attempt to make the Daytona 500, and she had hit her breaking point Thursday night during the second Duel qualifying race.
She decided to take a walk through the fan zone inside the infield at Daytona International Speedway, hoping this would give her some peace of mind and help her forget about all that transpired over the previous 24 hours. It had, to that point, been a bungled effort by The Money Team Racing, a part-time team owned by boxing legend Floyd Mayweather trying to haphazardly qualify for NASCAR’s biggest race.
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There was the electrical short that burned a hole in the oil line of Daly’s car that prevented him from making a qualifying attempt during time trials Wednesday night. That meant he had no speed to fall back on should he stumble in Duel No. 2. Things didn’t get much better Thursday. Even before his race started, Daly’s radio wasn’t working, prompting a mad scramble by the team to correct the issue. Then as the No. 50 car rolled off pit road, Daly immediately informed the team that he had a bad vibration. It was so bouncy, he said, it felt like he was driving over a “SuperCross track.”
For someone whose only chance of advancing to Sunday’s race was to beat two other drivers, Austin Hill and Travis Pastrana, Daly’s odds had become bleak, at best. He was doing everything he could, but his effort was severely hamstrung by a team that looked ill-prepared.
“It was going so bad, and I just felt so sorry for him,” Boles said.
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. And on this night, Daly, a full-time competitor in the IndyCar Series making a rare foray into NASCAR, received a gift from the racing gods in the form of not one, but two fortuitous cautions.
The first occurred when a piece of debris necessitated a caution on Lap 7. This gave TMT crew chief Tony Eury Jr. an opportunity to bring Daly to pit so he could make some adjustments to the car. But even though the changes solved the bounciness, Daly still lacked speed and fell a lap behind during the subsequent 31-lap stretch of green-flag racing.
It was at this point Boles climbed down off TMT’s pit box to take a stroll. During her walk she talked to her brother, lamenting the chain of events.
“All I could think about was that he probably wanted to go park and hide in a closet,” Boles said. “I mean, it’s got to be mortifying. And I know he was doing the best he could do with the situation that we had in hand.”
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Then came an even bigger break when second-place Daniel Suárez tagged the rear bumper of leader Kyle Busch, triggering a multi-car accident. Among those collected were Hill and Pastrana, both their cars suffering considerable damage.
Suddenly, Daly’s once-grim hopes had a pulse.
Pastrana took his car to the garage, ending his race. Meanwhile, Hill’s team attempted to make repairs on pit road, except the damage was too much. And just like that, Daly was guaranteed a starting spot in the Daytona 500.
“Honestly, we took advantage of luck, so it was very lucky,” Daly said. “But I will take luck all the time, because we got better and better as we raced.”
Once the Duel concluded and Daly got out of his car on pit road, Boles made her way through a throng of people to congratulate her son by giving a big hug. Neither could believe what had happened.
Conor Daly and his mom celebrate him making the Daytona 500. pic.twitter.com/EQd9BSCG9x
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) February 17, 2023
“It felt so good to see him smile,” Boles said. “I know he wanted to do that so bad.”
Said Daly: “She’s always crying, and then it makes me want to cry.”
Everything that could go wrong seemingly did, but Daly still accomplished his goal. He will become just the 62nd driver in history to race in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.
“Well, we were inherently unlucky for the last 36 hours, but we got lucky,” Daly said. “I wish I could have said that I drove it in on pure pace, but it was just crazy.”
Now, a new set of challenges awaits son and mom.
Unconvinced that he’d qualify, Daly booked a flight to Los Angeles for Friday, and he had 170 unread texts on his phone. And Boles is going to need both a change of clothes and a place to stay this weekend. When she flew into Daytona Beach on Thursday, she brought just one outfit with her, and she only booked a hotel for a single night believing Daly had a “half-percent chance” of qualifying.
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“I don’t have any clothes, and I have a one-night room. I have a flight at 11:15 in the morning,” Boles said. “… I don’t even care, I’ll wear the same outfit for four days.”
These are good problems to have, though, when failing to qualify for the Daytona 500 felt, not too long ago, like a foregone conclusion.
“It’s all worth it,” Daly said. “We do this for moments like this when it all pays off, when things work out. Sometimes you get lucky. It hasn’t happened to me a lot, but sometimes you’ve got to be super thankful for those moments. And I’m very thankful right now.”
“We do this for moments like this when it all pays off, when things work out,” Daly said. “Sometimes you get lucky. … I’m very thankful right now.” (Chris Graythen / Getty Images)(Photo: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
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