Foyt puzzled by Daly braking woes in St Pete qualifying

Munoz survived a drive-through penalty for a pitspeed violation to become one of only three Chevrolet-powered drivers to make it to the second round of qualifying.

However, Daly has struggled all weekend – as have several drivers – with inconsistent response from the braking system which in 2017 is a combination of Performance Friction pads and rotors and Brembo calipers.

Daly commented afterward: “We’re really struggling to stop the car. These new brakes are treating me very unkindly. Stopping the car has always been a strength of mine, the brake zones are where I can brake deep and now I can’t brake deep enough.

“For some reason the car won’t stop and we’ve got to get that fixed so we can actually compete.”

Foyt told Motorsport.com: “We’re looking at everything right now to see why there are differences between Carlos and Conor. They’re the same systems, obviously, so it’s strange that Conor is losing a lot of time under braking.

“We’re going to try everything tomorrow in warm-up, like putting new master cylinders on, just to keep checking things off the list of potential problems.

“With Carlos, I don’t think we had anything for the Fast Six, but we should have been eighth on the grid, except for a couple of boo-boos – a tenth [of a second] lost here and there. But that’s true of every driver, right? You can always see where you could have gained a little more time.

“But when he got a drive-through for a pitlane speed violation, we calmed him down, told him he had one lap to get the job done, he did it and it got us through to the Top 12.

“So I’m pleased because we still feel so behind with all the new stuff,” added Foyt, referring to the team’s switch from Honda to Chevrolet for 2017.

“Carlos’s feedback has been really good. I think Will [Phillips, new technical director and Munoz’s race engineer] is still getting himself back up to speed, but we’re at the test at Barber [Motorsports Park] in 10 days and that will be vital.

"Every second we can spend on track is good right now. We’re just learning so much all the time.”