Conor Daly's Daytona 500 car tried to fail him twice. He made the race anyway.

Conor Daly pulled out of pit lane at Daytona International Speedway, bouncing like he'd brought a monster truck to his first NASCAR super speedway race. Having never tested, practiced, qualified or raced in this car, the IndyCar regular couldn't even begin to describe to his The Money Team Racing crew what the problem might be.

And yet, with a lot of luck fitting of a man who met his savior of a sponsor in Las Vegas, and some heavy tuning from practice the next two days, Conor Daly will roll off Sunday as a most improbable starter in the Daytona 500.

Daly didn't know it nine days ago when he spoke to IndyStar about landing his last-minute ride with Floyd Mayweather's The Money Team Racing for a shot at qualifying for his first Daytona 500, but the Noblesville native turned out to be quite prophetic.

"I could’ve not done it and saved whatever stress it might’ve involved, but I don’t want to get to the end of my life and think, ‘I had one chance to qualify for the 500, and I said no because it might’ve been hard,'" Daly said last week. "It’s going to be a big learning experience, and if we make it, it’ll be historic.”

'If we make it, it'll be historic': Daly eyeing longshot Daytona 500 bid

By virtue of not being one of the two fastest non-chartered cars during Wednesday night's single-lap qualifying -- an electrical issue burnt a hole in the oil line and stole away even a chance at an attempt -- Daly was staring down the need to race his way into Sunday by beating Travis Pastrana and Austin Hill in the 60-lap race. Both drivers, like Daly, were hoping to make their Daytona 500 debuts, but unlike Daly, one (Pastrana) had top-shelf equipment as an extra car with 23XI, and the other (Hill) won last year's Xfinity season-opener at Daytona and the Truck series' event back in 2019.

Without even the allowance of practice laps, due to NASCAR's weekend schedule, Daly was a longshot at best to qualify, literally hopping in the car Thursday night to take his first Cup series laps on an oval of any kind in the duel. With Wednesday's mechanical failure? Well ... let's just say he'd already booked a flight to Los Angeles for the weekend after Wednesday's qualifying saga.

Seconds after rolling off pitlane Thursday night, that pessimistic decision was looking spot-on.

"I don't know if it's supposed to be this bouncy when I accelerate. It feels like I'm literally jumping. I kid you not," Daly said on the radio before taking the green flag. "It feels like something is bent in the rear. Like, is that normal?

"I'm not gonna lie, man. I don't know how this can be right. But I'll go for it."

As the 21-car pack sped up to take the green, Daly's No. 50 Chevy traded porpoising for a sheer lack of speed. Immediately, he'd lost the draft and was spit out the back.

"I'm sorry, it would not accelerate, man! It wouldn't go anywhere," Daly said on the radio. During an early caution for debris, TMTR took an extended pitstop to try and alleviate some of Daly's discomfort. Still, when the race returned to green, he could hardly keep it out of the wall. "I'm so sorry, man," he could be heard telling his team over the radio. "My (expletive) car."

Near the halfway point, the 19-car lead pack swallowed Daly up and lapped him, meaning only an absolute disaster for both Pastrana and Hill could keep Daly's hopes alive. And then, with 20 laps to go, Daniel Suarez's needling the rear bumper of Kyle Busch at the front of the field finally turned the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing machine into the wall, leading to a four-car collision that accordioned through the back of the field, eventually gathering the top-two open cars. Daly, well back of the pack while still a lap down, managed to avoid the carnage.

Pastrana's crew took little time to usher him back to the garage, signaling the end of his night with no reason to take any risks. Hill's team rolled him back out onto the track with significant right-front damage. A lap or so later, he was back in and eventually sulked back to the garage as well.

And so Daly, by virtue of not giving up on his BMX bike of a Cup car before the start and keeping his nose clean, managed to achieve his childhood dream. He'll start on the outside of Row 17 in the 40-car field on Sunday.

"We were inherently unlucky the last 36 hours, but we got lucky," he told Fox Sports post-race in pit lane. "I wish I could've said I drove it in on pure pace, but it was crazy. We went out there, and the car was bouncing around. I had no idea what was going on. I thought the drive train was broken.

"But (my team) made it better every time (we stopped). I've watched this race so many years and so much crazy stuff can happen, and thankfully we were on the right side of the craziness. That's amazing."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Daytona 500: Conor Daly completes improbable run to starting grid