Daly to drive #88 BC Forever car in honor of Clauson; Pippa Mann returns to Pocono
Plainfield, IL (August 16, 2016) – The entire Dale Coyne Racing team enters the race weekend at Pocono Raceway with heavy hearts following the loss of their Indianapolis 500 teammate Bryan Clauson over a week ago. To honor his memory, Conor Daly will be driving the #88 BC Forever entry at the ABC Supply 500.
Aboard the #19 entry will be another of Clauson’s teammates from May, Pippa Mann, who returns to the team for the second 500-mile race of the season, a race Clauson told her he would have loved to take part in.
Clauson, who passed away from injuries sustained in a race incident at the Belleville Midget Nationals on August 6, ran the Indianapolis 500 this year with DCR in the same Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality/Cancer Treatment Centers of America green, white and dark gray livery on his #88 machine run by Daly throughout the season.
Clauson was on a mission this year, ‘Chasing 200’ race starts in his ‘Circular Instanity’ tour and his Indy 500 teammates are now looking to help him reach that goal while paying tribute to him, in their own way, with Daly driving the #88 BC Forever machine and Mann wearing a special decal on her helmet.
This weekend’s event marks the first official visit to the 2.5-mile track for Daly who will be able to count on Mann’s experience at the triangular oval as she makes her third appearance.
Mann tied her career best finish at Pocono Raceway last season with the Coyne team finishing 13th after starting a career best 17th. She also finished in the Top 15 at Pocono in 2013.
Daly and Mann will have a 90-minute morning practice session on Saturday, August 20 ahead of the the 1:30pm ET qualifying session.
The ABC Supply 500 will be broadcast live on NBCSN starting at 3:00pm on Sunday, August 21.
Live timing and scoring will be available for all sessions on www.indycar.com.
What they have to say:
Conor Daly – #88 BC Forever
“It means a lot to our whole team to be driving the #88 BC Forever entry this weekend. I think everyone enjoyed working with Bryan throughout the month of May. Jonathan and David Byrd have sort of accepted us into their family. They already had a big racing program with Bryan and then they added me and Dale Coyne Racing to that as well. It’s going to be a great way to pay tribute and obviously a little extra motivation to ‘Park it’ in Victory Lane for Bryan.
“I’m excited for the Pocono event because it’s a 500-mile race and another big chance to get a lot of experience on another oval, this time a triangular one. I was at the race at Pocono last year so I saw how crazy the restarts were and how good the racing was, so I’m just looking forward to being a part of that. We’ve had strong cars at all the superspeedway package ovals so we’re hoping to continue that same trend. We’re going there with a lot of unknowns but I look forward to learning about the place and getting up to speed.”
Pippa Mann – #19 Boy Scouts of America
“The past week has been incredibly tough for everyone in the racing family, and I’m amongst those who have been feeling the loss of a friend, and a teammate. When I heard from Dale (Coyne) last week that he had decided that I would drive the #19 car this weekend, it meant so much to me, because it gives me the opportunity to be one of the drivers helping Bryan reach his 200 starts this year.
“I’m also adding an edited version of the BC Still Chasing 200 logo to my helmet for this weekend so I can carry him with me for the race. He told me this May he always wanted to run this race, so I hope between Conor and I, he sees this as us making those starts for him.”