IndyCar star Conor Daly wishes 7-time Grammy nominee and ‘elite sim racer’ on his birthday 

Conor Daly took to Instagram to wish Joel Thomas Zimmerman, commonly known as Deadmau5 on his birthday. Deadmau5 is a Canadian-born music producer and DJ and is a seven-time Grammy Award nominee. Daly uploaded a stories post on January 5, 2025 as Zimmerman turned 44-years-old.

The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver uploaded a video of Deadmau5 on a Red Bull sim racing rig as he played the F1 game on it. As Daly wished the musician, he called him an elite sim racing driver. The caption read:

“Happy Birthday to elite sim racer @deadmau5 🤜🤛”

Image credits: Instagram/@conordaly22

Conor Daly and Deadmau5 have been friends for over a decade now and connected for the first time over Twitter. It was the JHR driver who encouraged the seven-time Grammy nominee to attend the 2014 Honda Indy Toronto, which was Zimmerman’s first visit to an IndyCar race.

As the Canadian musician and DJ attended the doubleheader in Toronto, he experienced the thrill of an IndyCar as he was taken around the track in the two-seater open-wheel car. Deadmau5 was also gifted a black helmet by IndyCar which had his logo on it.

Later in 2014, Deadmau5 was taken around the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by fellow Canadian and former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe. Reflecting about the ride around the IMS, Deadmau5 said (via IndyStar):

“My kneecaps are still on. He (James Hinchcliffe) is hitting these brake points at the last possible millisecond, and he's hitting them hard.”

“We just made a promise to each other: He wouldn't be entering any kind of DJ world in the next two years, and I won't be on the Indy (circuit) for two years,” added Deadmau5 when asked if he'd like to switch roles with Hinchcliffe.

Deadmau5 is a huge motorsports enthusiast and sampled the sound of a Ferrari 458 for one of his songs. The musician also got the opportunity to drive the Red Bull F4 car in November 2024.

Zimmerman often goes out for car meets, posts pictures of his McLaren on Instagram, and owns a hydraulic sim racing setup at home. The DJ also uploaded a video of himself on YouTube as he raced in the sim rig.

---

Conor Daly detailed the struggle of securing a sponsorship: “IndyCar is a hard sell right now”

Conor Daly subbed in for Agustin Canapino at JHR for the last five races of the 2024 Indy season and recently announced his full-time driver role with JHR for the 2025 season. However, the off-season wasn't easy for the American, who struggled to find sponsorship and detailed the same on a podcast.

“They (JHR) were like, well, so the budgets have gone up and we're gonna need at least like 10 million per car to do this thing. And I was like, I have no idea how I'm gonna do that. Like, zero. I have not, not a clue. And I actually still don't know how that's going to happen, but I don't know,” Conor Daly said (via the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast). (11:05 onwards)

“Sadly, you know, to be honest, IndyCar is a hard sell right now. It is. It's like, we all know that it's a hard sell when you're up against that amount of money,” Conor Daly added, suggesting he called multiple investors to find a sponsorship.

The JHR driver was sponsored by Polkadot, a blockchain technology community during the 2024 season, but it refused Daly's proposed $7.5M for the 2025 season.