Conor Daly — a heartbreaking 24 hours and where an unemployed IndyCar driver goes from here

INDIANAPOLIS — Phil Keoghan just wanted him to smile. Normally, the fun-loving Conor Daly would have happily obliged “The Amazing Race” host, but right then, he couldn’t muster the strength.

It wasn’t just that he and Alexander Rossi had come heartbreakingly close to completing their quest to win one of TV’s most-watched reality game shows — though that didn’t help. It was that during the length of their incredible journey around the world, Daly had to endure the constant presence of a pit in his stomach.

“I just hope when I get home, I can get back on my team and get back to work,” Daly woefully confided to Keoghan after being eliminated . “So we’ll see what happens.”

Even as he was uttering the words, Daly didn’t seem to believe them. Hard to blame him. He’s been down this road before. A few times, actually. A short lifetime spent in racing has turned his worldview sour.

Just before Daly, who is from Noblesville, embarked on his journey, he let his bosses at A.J. Foyt Enterprises know what he'd be up to for the next few months. By way of response, they told him they weren’t yet sure if they’d still be his bosses upon his return.

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Left with that uncertainty, Daly spent every spare moment he could find while on location for the show typing his name into Google's search, fearing the day he’d see a story about Foyt opting to take the team in a different direction.

Daly had a sinking suspicion that’s exactly what they’d do, and upon arriving home, learning he had been right all along was no consolation.

“I’m sort of a good judge of how these things are going to go, because I’m realistic and I’m used to being shafted,” Daly told IndyStar recently. “It’s happened so many times. So, when I got back from the show, the first call I made was to my manager. The second call I made was to Larry (Foyt) and, well, yeah.”

Neither call went well. While Foyt was upfront with his disappointing news, Daly would learn from a series of unanswered calls and texts that he was without a manager, as well as a team. Within a gut-wrenching 24 hours, Daly had been eliminated from “The Amazing Race” and lost the only job he’s ever wanted.

"That period of time was really tough for him,” said his stepfather and Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles. “He was so thrilled to be back home, but that was not the welcome he had hoped for when he got home.”

Daly isn’t bitter about what happened with Foyt or his manager. It’s hard to manage a driver who doesn’t have a team, Daly said with a smirk, and at Foyt, well, he doesn't fully understand why they did what they did, but he's not holding a grudge.

“It’s a business, and I respect their decision,” Daly said of team leaders at Foyt. “They gave me my first chance to be in an Indy car, but I just hope they didn't give me my last. It’s a good group of people there. But I certainly don't feel like I got a fair opportunity, especially if a guy like Jack Hawksworth got another year. … It’s just tough to process that information.”

Hawksworth returned for a second year with Foyt in 2016 after registering an averaging finishing position of 17.5, last among drivers with at least six races. Daly, meanwhile, recorded an averaging finishing position of 14.8 last year, including a top-five run at Gateway near the end of the season.

Daly concedes his results were less than exceptional in 2017. Still, he believed that after a rough start to the season for the rebuilding team, his No. 4 car program made great strides late — three top-10s in the final five races — and was in line to take a step forward in 2018. Instead, Foyt chose to show Daly and teammate Carlos Munoz the door while bringing in veteran Tony Kanaan and, later, rookie Matheus Leist.

“I remember speaking with AJ after (the season finale at) Sonoma, because I felt like that was my best race performance of the year,” Daly said. “I know we only finished 10th, but I was saving fuel that entire race. I was hanging over the car, fighting for every inch that I could, because we knew we didn’t have a very fast car. We knew it’d be tough; we had trouble the whole weekend. But I pulled the best lap of my life out of you know where to try and get a decent qualifying spot (13th).

“At the end, I was like, ‘Hey, I think we made a lot of progress, and I think together and as a group, I like where we’re going, especially with TK (Kanaan) next year. I thought it was all heading in the right direction. But as I learned in racing, the thing that makes the most sense will never happen."

After learning he was out at Foyt, Daly pursued the lone full-time seat available — with his former boss Dale Coyne — but without a major sponsor backing him, he couldn't make it happen.

Instead, for the first time since 2015, Daly is entering a racing season without a job. That was a tough pill to swallow, he admitted -- the pain was only exacerbated while watching his friends working at the open test in Phoenix and especially while he was touring the country promoting #TeamIndyCar at "Amazing Race" watch parties.

Yet Daly kept a smile on his face while on tour. He takes seriously the responsibility of being an IndyCar ambassador — a full-time driver or not. And he wants his friends, family and fans to know that he’s not sulking behind the scenes either. He's working his tail off to ensure that the “unemployed” part of resume doesn’t stretch beyond 2018.

For six hours, nearly every day, Daly said, he makes dozens of phone calls to prospective partners and sponsors, using “every connection I have.” He’s traveled to NASCAR races and spoken to sports car teams in the hopes of diversifying his racing portfolio or meeting someone willing to help him find an IndyCar ride. He’s also kept himself in racing shape while still mapping out plans to attend every IndyCar race this season.

The plan is to drive IndyCar's two-seater, and he’s working on a deal with Honda to occasionally pilot the “Fastest Seat in Sports.” Daly figures that if he's at every race, he'll be top of mind if a substitute is needed.

"His attitude throughout all of this has been amazing," said Boles, who frequently reminds Daly that drivers such as Ryan Hunter-Reay and J.R Hildebrand were once forced to step away from full-time racing for a year or more before returning. "That's been the best part for me, the part I'm most proud of. His head is still up, and he's still digging. He's going to figure it out. All of this hard work is going to pay off."

Daly, of course, is not altogether giving up on racing Indy cars in 2018. He has his sights set on competing in his fifth Indianapolis 500, as well as taking cracks at the Indianapolis Grand Prix and at the Bommarito Automotive 500 on Aug. 25 at Gateway Motorsports Park.

How close is Daly to a deal to drive in the 500? Boles said Thursday he's zeroing in, but Daly is hesitant to put odds on anything anymore.

"Close? With all that’s happened in the past two three years, I don't even want to say anything," Daly said with a laugh while shaking his head. "Yeah, I'm close, but I could also be 100 miles away. I had some guy promise me on my birthday he was going to give me two million bucks to be there for the full season — then I never heard from him again. That’s the sort of thing we deal with on a daily basis. It’s like, 'OK that sounds cool,' but I don’t believe anyone as far as I can throw them. So we’ll see."

Daly may sometimes sounded jaded, but he's not. He just aware of the harsh realities of his profession. He knows there's likely a hundred more "No's" on the other end of his phone calls before there will be a "Yes." And that's OK with him. That will just make his return all the sweeter.

"In Phoenix, I talk to people I've worked with at Coyne and Foyt, and they still believe in me," Daly said. "They know I can do it. And that feels really good and motivated me to get back in. I'm actually content with where I'm at right now, because I know that when the right opportunity finally does present itself, I know I'm going to take advantage of it."

Follow IndyStar Motor Sports Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter and Instagram: @jimayello.