Derek Patrick Daly (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former racing driver. He won the 1977 British Formula 3 Championship, and competed as a professional racing driver for 17 years participating in 64 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 2 April 1978. He scored a total of 15 championship points, and also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races. After F1, Daly raced in CART and IMSA, where he achieved much success with Nissan.
After honing his skills in the Irish Formula Ford Championship, Daly had his first drive in the European Formula Two Championship in 1977. In 1978 and 1979, he competed in both Formula Two and Formula One, finishing third in the Formula Two championship in both seasons. From 1980 to 1982, he focussed on Formula One, his best year being 1980, when he scored two fourth-place finishes and finished 11th in the Drivers' Championship. His two most memorable moments in F1 both came in the Monaco Grand Prix. In 1980 he crashed spectacularly at the first corner after vaulting three other cars. In 1982 he suddenly found himself in contention for the win when the four cars ahead of him ran into problems with under two laps to go, but ended up on the sidelines himself when his gearbox seized moments later.
In 1982, Daly began driving in the CART series and continued through 1989. He started 66 CART races, including each Indianapolis 500 from 1983 to 1989, except for 1986. He finished in the top ten a total of 21 times, including one podium finish, 3rd position, at Milwaukee in 1987. In September 1984 he was nearly killed in a horrible crash in the CART PPG Detroit News Grand Prix 200 at Michigan International Speedway. The front end of his car was sheared off and he suffered multiple injuries including a crushed left ankle, double compound fracture to the left tibia and fibula, fractured left hip socket, severely fractured pelvis, several broken left side ribs, broken left hand, 3rd degree burns to the left arm, dislocated right foot and ankle, deep abrasions and soft tissue to right heel, and internal bleeding.
Daly won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1990 and 1991 driving a Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo. In 1990, he had the unusual distinction of driving both the first and second-placed cars.
Daly is known in motor sports circles around the world as a driver, writer, broadcaster, racing advisor, and businessman. He runs a professional services company called MotorVation, and had been a commentator for American broadcasts of the Champ Car series, as well as a public speaker. One of the agencies that represents him is the National Speakers Bureau.
In 2018, Daly was fired from a racing analyst position he had at WISH-TV when WISH-TV attributed a racial slur that was uttered by Indianapolis Colts announcer Bob Lamey to him. While not disputing saying the slur, Daly contends that he did not use the offending language in the context Lamey alleged (Lamey claimed that Daly had once stated "... there aren't any (racial slur) in this race"), but instead used the word as part of a common Irish colloquialism during a 1983 radio interview, without being aware that in America the term was racist. Daly filed a $25M lawsuit as a result. In the aftermath, his son Conor had his sponsor, Lilly Diabetes, pull their support as he was set to make his NASCAR debut at Road America on 25 August 2018 due to the comments, even though Conor was not born for another 8 years after the fact. In 2021, all counts against Emmis Communications, the Indianapolis Colts, and radio personality Joe Staysniak were dismissed. The charge of conspiracy to defraud against Lamey was also dismissed, but he still faces five counts of defamation, tortuous interference of business, tortuous interference of a business relationship, and another count of punitive damages. Later that year, U.S. district court judge Richard L. Young ruled in favor of WISH-TV and the station's former parent company, Nexstar Media Group in all claims in Daly's lawsuit and ordered him to pay Nexstar's legal costs.
Daly became a US citizen and now resides in Carmel, Indiana. He has three sons, Conor, Colin and Christian.
Daly's son, Conor Daly, is also a racing driver, starting in GP3 driving for the Lotus GP team in 2012, and then continuing on to GP2 in 2014 driving for Venezuela GP Lazarus, and then IndyCar, starting part-time in 2013 and full-time in 2016.
Daly's niece, Nicola Daly, is an Ireland women's field hockey international and was a member of the squad that won the silver medal at the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup. She also works as a data engineer for Juncos Racing.
Original Wikipedia article last retrieved on 18 September 2022.