The 26-year-old Noblesville, IN native lost his ride at AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet after just one season, and while the same fate met his erstwhile teammate Carlos Munoz, the Colombian has landed a seat in an Andretti Autosport entry for the 102nd running of the Indy 500.

Daly, meanwhile, is still seeking a similarly strong opportunity, and has his sights set on a fourth Coyne seat, alongside Sebastien Bourdais, Pietro Fittipaldi and likely Indy 500-only returnee Pippa Mann. Coyne has told Motorsport.com that the fourth seat is likely to go to Daly or James Davison.

Daly told Motorsport.com: “I’m working on it, and I think we’re close. I’ve been talking with Coyne a lot and I want to be with those guys. But I don’t know anything yet; I never count my chickens until they’re hatched.”

Regarding potential sponsors, Daly said: “It’s really difficult to get anyone in the game right now, but I think we do have a good lead on someone for the Month of May. We just have to try and figure out all the final details. But I’d say it’s looking better than it has in the past, so hopefully we can get it done sooner rather than later.

“The teams are charging a lot of money, man. If you run the Grand Prix on the road course and the 500, it’s no less than a million bucks. And the 500 alone, bare minimum, is $750,000. That’s a lot to ask for a sponsor for one or two races.”

While Coyne is his first choice Daly isn’t ignoring potential rides elsewhere.

“Juncos are looking to run more races, I think, and that looks a really good team with a lot of good people,” he said. “Riccy [team owner Ricardo Juncos] believes in me, always has, since we won the Pro Mazda championship together. So that would be cool if there was an opening there and they found a sponsor, or I found a sponsor.

“But realistically I really want to try and work with Dale’s team. I really like those guys and [the #19 DCR entry’s race engineer] Michael Cannon really believes in me.”

Although AJ Foyt Racing has run a third car at Indy before – most recently for Indy 500 one-offs Martin Plowman, Alex Tagliani and Zach Veach – Daly largely dismissed the idea of a return to his former team.

“I haven’t talked to them,” he said, “and I haven’t heard about that program running again this year. But anyway, I just don’t think it’s the right environment for me there right now. I think I should be elsewhere.”