136 - Stay Vigilant - NASCAR Xfinity Racer Riley Herbst and Olympic Field Hockey Player Nicci Daly

Speed Street

As the motorsports world settles into its Olympic summer break, Conor Daly and Chase Holden keep you up to date with another episode of Speed Street. To help further recap his recent NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Conor invites the winner of the event Riley Herbst to the show to give his perspective from the front of the pack. Riley provides listeners with insight to how the race played out for him in the final laps, and how he felt like he lost the race going into turn four after light contact with Aric Almirola. Conor also asks Riley about the aero strategy that is prevalent in the Xfinity Series and how drivers methodically pack dirty air onto an opponent’s rear spoiler to help make passes. Finally, the guys look ahead to the upcoming NASCAR events at Michigan International and speculate what this speedway package’s on-track racing product will look like.

It wouldn’t be Olympic coverage without chatting with an actual Olympian, and Speed Street just happened to find one who has connections to the IndyCar world. None other than Conor’s own cousin Nicci Daly joins the show to discuss her time at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with the Ireland women’s Field Hockey team. Nikki explains that the process to qualify for the Olympics was actually more difficult and time consuming than competing in the actual summer games, and just making it to the big stage was a major accomplishment in itself. Nicci shares some hilarious stories from the Olympic village and what it was like interacting with other athletes from all over the world. Nicci also fills listeners in on her current position working for Turn 3 Motorsports in the USF Pro2000 Series as a data engineer.