QUALIFYING NOTES – Barber Motorsports Park
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK QUALIFYING NOTES
 | 9th: RINUS VEEKAY 01:06.1222 (125.223 mph) 20th: CONOR DALY 01:06.4810 (124.547 mph) RACE: Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix TRACK: Barber Motorsports Park LOCATION: Leeds, Alabama, USA TRACK LAYOUT: 2.3-mile, 17-turn permanent road course RACE LENGTH: 90 Laps BROADCAST: Sunday – 2 p.m. CT (NBC) |
CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE.COM CHEVROLET
| CONOR DALY, No. 20 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet, Qualified 20th: “We’re certainly not starting as far back as we were at Long Beach which is helpful! We started racing our way forward in Long Beach so we are looking to do the same here. I do think we have a chance to move forward as was a bit of confusion from one set of tires to another in our qualifying session. We lost a bit of the balance of the car on our second set. Just a shame, it’s very, very tight; very very close. I am happy that Rinus (VeeKay) was able to get a decent qualifying run. Obviously, we need a good race tomorrow. Hopefully, we can work some magic and move forward.” |
BARBER STATS
BEST START: 10th (2021)
BEST FINISH: 16th (2021)
NUMBER OF STARTS: 4
CAREER STATS
SEASON: 10th
STARTS: 100
POLES: 1
BEST FINISH: 2nd, Detroit 2016
OF NOTE:
- Conor Daly completed today’s qualifications at Barber Motorsports Park on two sets of red Firestone Firehawk tires. His fastest lap of 1:06.4810 had him 10th at the end of Round 1, Group 2 and he would not advance. He will start tomorrow’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix from the 20th position.
- Daly is now in his fourth season with ECR and his second as full-time driver of the No. 20 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet. In the most recent event, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Daly reached a career milestone as he competed in his 100th NTT INDYCAR SERIES race. He will also make his 10th Indianapolis 500 start next month.
- This year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at Barber Motorsports Park will be Daly’s 5th. When the event served as the season opener in 2021, Daly advanced to the second round of qualifying and earned himself a Top 10 starting position. In the 2022 edition, minimal opportunities to work his way forward left Daly with a 19th place result.
RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITNILE.COM CHEVROLET
RINUS VEEKAY, No. 21 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet, Qualified 9th: “I am proud of the guys! We have been struggling this weekend, so making it into the Top 10 almost feels like a pole position. This morning I was 20th while pushing hard, but we made a big jump forward. We have a fast car now. Really, our race pace has been good all three races this season, we’ve just had a bunch of bad luck and not had the results. We also haven’t been able to put it together in qualifying, but this time we did! The team worked really hard and it paid off.”
BARBER STATS
BEST START: 1st (2022)
BEST FINISH: 3rd (2022)
NUMBER OF STARTS: 2
CAREER STATS
SEASON: 4th
STARTS: 49
WINS: 1
POLES: 2
OF NOTE:
- Rinus VeeKay earned his first Top 10 starting position of the season today, qualifying 9th at Barber Motorsports Park. He finished 6th in Round 1, Group 1, which gave him a position in Round 2. His quick lap of 1:06.1222 will place him on the inside of Row 5 coming to tomorrow’s green flag.
- The Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix will be a milestone event for VeeKay as he makes his 50th NTT INDYCAR SERIES start tomorrow. The 22-year-old has spent his entire NTT INDYCAR SERIES career with Ed Carpenter Racing and is the team’s longest-tenured full-time driver, now in his fourth season behind the wheel the No. 21 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet.
- VeeKay earned his second career NTT P1 Award at Barber Motorsports Park in 2022 and started from the pole position. He led 57 of the 90 laps last year before settling for a third place finish. In his two starts at Barber, VeeKay has not finished lower than 6th.