The U.S. Air Force unveiled its latest unique livery design to be driven by Ed Carpenter Racing’s Conor Daly in this year’s Indianapolis 500 — this a tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military aviators in America who flew more than 15,000 missions during World War II in Europe and North Africa.
Daly’s No. 47 Chevy, mostly silver with a red nose and red detailing on the wings, the engine cover and the wheel covers and yellow accents that include the top of the aeroscreen, harkens back to the Tuskegee Airmen’s P-51 Mustangs that featured a red tail and red and yellow stripes on the nose, nicknamed the Red Tails.
The car design comes in tandem with the Air Force’s dual partnership with Richard Petty Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series, where Erik Jones will run a similar-looking car during this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway and in September at Bristol.
“I am continually honored and humbled that Ed Carpenter Racing is able to represent the
U.S. Air Force and assist in the mission of recruiting our next generation of Airmen,” ECR team owner Ed Carpenter said in a release.
At the moment, Daly is schedule to run 14 of the 17 races on the 2021 IndyCar calendar, all with ECR. He will serve as the road-and-street course driver for the No. 20 car, shared with Carpenter. Additionally, Daly will run this year’s Indy 500 in the team’s third entry, the No. 47 Chevy. The U.S. Air Force will serve as the primary sponsor in 10 of Daly’s 13 road and street course races, along with the 500.
The Air Force came on as a primary sponsor with ECR in 2020 but has been with Daly since 2018, when he drove a red, white and blue car with Thom Burns Racing in the 2018 Indy 500.
In 2019, Daly drove for Andretti Autosport in a a mostly-black car with blue accents and tiger shark teeth near the front that paid tribute to the 5th Air Force stationed at the Yokota Air Base in Japan with similar shark teeth detailing.
That design idea carried over to Daly’s livery on the No. 20 ECR Chevy in 2020, before the Air Force put together a bright-orange design for his No. 47 car in the Indy 500 that paid tribute in design to the famous Bell X-1 aircraft that Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier for the first time. The number celebrated the year 1947, the year the Air Force was officially created and when Yeager made his famous flight.
For 2021, the Air Force detailed Daly’s silver and blue livery with small B-2 steath stealth bomber silhouettes on the top of the car’s sidepods, which he ran in this past weekend’s IndyCar season-opener at Barber Motorsports Park. He started 10th and finished 16th.
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