Conor Daly finally addresses IndyCar seat rumors after "very detrimental" $3.5 million blow

Conor Daly has issued an important update about his 2025 IndyCar seat with Juncos Hollinger Racing. His position in the team had come under threat after Polkadot, a blockchain company, rejected his ask for a $3.5 million sponsorship.

This abrupt development came only three weeks out from the first race of the season. Daly had proposed his latest referendum on January 16 for the Polkadot community to vote upon and decide his sponsorship's fate. In the latest episode of his Speed Street podcast, the 33-year-old explained how 96% of voters were in his favor till a week before the 28-day voting period ended on February 13.

However, in the final few days, Mark Cachia of Scytale Digital, a company operating in the Polkadot ecosystem, lobbied against him and single-handedly brought the percentage down to 72%. This led Conor Daly to schedule a meeting with Cachia, who is a whale in the Polkadot ecosystem. That led to nowhere, as Cachia rejected his proposal on the last day.

In a Polkadot virtual company meeting after that, Daly broke the news to the rest of the stakeholders involved. A recording of the meeting was posted by @TheKusamarian on X, in which the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver admitted that he could lose his IndyCar seat.

Conor Daly recently came clean on the Speed Street podcast for his fans and affirmed that he will remain with the Argentinian-American team for this season until notified otherwise.

"We know how important a financial element is to this deal, but when I wake up every day, I'm an IndyCar driver for Juncos Hollinger Racing and I want to be as successful as possible. We do have some sponsorship for this year. We do have another partner that we'll announce pretty soon, probably before St. Pete (first race), for some races," Daly said. [25:49 onwards]

He reiterated how this loss of sponsorship most likely won't affect his relationships with JHR. However, he admitted it was a crushing blow.

"I want to make sure to tell everyone that I am confidently showing up to St. Pete, I'm confidently showing up every day to JHR to be a race car driver. I wish I didn't have to focus as much on the funding side, but we are also very focused on that. To clear up all of that stuff, this was a very detrimental blow," Daly added.

Conor Daly hits back at X user who defended Polkadot's abrupt sponsorship rejection

NTT IndyCar Series GMR Grand Prix - Source: Getty

A few days after the negative development, a person who works for Astar Network, a platform built on the Polkadot ecosystem, defended Mark Cachia's reasoning for rejection. He explained how Cachia's stance of Polkadot having no use for a sports partnership, like that of Conor Daly's, at this stage was spot on.

"Tbh I feel sorry for you guys, I know there’s hard work and tough times. Problem is, why so much work on something that basically doesn’t fit? Unfortunately you’ve been wrongly advised by a part of the community. I have 0 interest to agree with anyone, just honest opinion," he wrote in his post.

Conor Daly wasn't convinced with the explanation at all. He voiced his disagreement in his reply, writing:

"Respectfully… saying we were wrongly advised by EVERY single DV, over 3-4 months… that’s insane. I’m gunna say you might be the person who is wrong here. DV’s from all over the world with differing opinions who all care about Polkadot. YOU are saying the majority of them were wrong? That is a wild level of ignorance but hey, in the end… You and your rich friends win so what else can I say."

Daly took part in the two-day IndyCar preseason test at Sebring on February 17 and 18. He emerged 10th-fastest overall after the final afternoon session on Tuesday was concluded.