Conor Daly could lose IndyCar seat as $3.5 million sponsor drops out last-minute

Conor Daly has acknowledged the possibility of losing his 2025 IndyCar drive with Juncos Hollinger Racing. After four months of promising negotiations, the fan-favorite driver's to-be primary sponsor, Polkadot, a blockchain network, has rejected his ask of $3.5 million.

In a video shared on X from a Polkadot company meeting on February 9 by @TheKusamarian, Athelo Group President Andrew Stallings, who was managing the partnership between Daly and Polkadot, displayed the preparations for Daly's season, including his car livery and merchandise. The blockchain company was set to sponsor the No. 78 driver for eight races, including the 109th Indy 500 in May.

Unfortunately, in another major update shared on February 14, again via a recording of a company meeting, Daly's sponsorship rejection was announced. Reportedly, in the latest referendum proposed by Daly, over 80% of the community was on board for the $3.5 million sponsorship till about a week ago.

However, Mark Cachia of Scytale Digital, an asset management company embedded in the Polkadot Ecosystem, rejected Conor Daly's proposal on the last day of the decision period. In the video meeting, the IndyCar driver explained to everybody involved how Cachia didn't even look at his referendum.

Daly was deeply disappointed with the update and acknowledged how this loss of funding could lead to his losing the 2025 Juncos Hollinger Racing seat.

"Sadly, it means a lot to both Andrew (Stallings), myself, my career. I'll probably lose my seat with the race scene. But again, we take these risks. That's not anyone's fault. This is business. Business is hard sometimes," the 33-year-old said. [5:46 onwards]

This full-time season with JHR was supposed to be Daly's big IndyCar comeback. The Indiana native had a tough couple of part-time seasons after parting ways with Ed Carpenter Racing at the beginning of 2023 on the heels of a disappointing run. A few days before announcing the JHR deal in December 2024, he revealed how this was "one of the most difficult offseasons" he's been through. He found himself in no-man's-land with "no forms of income" and "no idea what's going on".

In his latest Polkadot meeting, Conor Daly also explained how he was clueless about how to break this new development to the media.

"I don't know what to say to the media because when you explain it, it does not sound good," he said.

This could be a major blow for JHR, which recently suspended its Indy NXT operations three weeks before the 2025 season.

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Conor Daly slams Mark Cachia for 'flexing his power' and rejecting IndyCar sponsorship

Conor Daly at NTT IndyCar Series GMR Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Mark Cachia, Chief Investment Officer of Scytale Digital, defended his actions via an X post, explaining how a sports partnership wouldn't serve Polkadot at this stage.

"Sports sponsorships have a purpose for companies with products or corporate clients that get invited to events. This is absolutely not appropriate for Polkadot at this stage. Happy to engage in AAG or another forum to discuss this. We need to focus our limited resources on positive ROI activities that attract builders, users, and investors. This did none of that," an excerpt from his post read.

Conor Daly replied to the X post, highlighting disinterest in the discussions.

"You had months to discuss with us. You didn’t know a single thing about what we were doing. Zero respect for DV’s and the discussion we made sure to have with them, the community. And we did bring a very real business to Polkadot in a short amount of time. But once again, didn’t even care to potentially be wrong about your own personal opinion. You can disagree, that is totally fair. But I will not let you throw things out that aren’t true. Congrats on your flex of power," he wrote.

Polkadot was Daly's primary sponsor at the Indy 500 last year. As per its website, it was the first time a major athlete's sponsorship was decided by a community vote using blockchain technology. The community sided with the move with a 95.8% approval rate.