On April 26, 2020, Denny Hamlin finished last in the eNASCAR virtual race at Talladega. But it wasn’t his fault. A video of the incident shows what happened, and who the person responsible was.
The video shows Hamlin’s 7-year-old daughter, Taylor, walk into the room where he was set up in his driving simulator. In her hand, she’s holding a TV remote and tries to ask her dad a question. Hamlin, obviously in the middle of a race, motions with his hand for her to leave. Taylor then accidentally pushes the power button on the remote, causing the screen in the simulator to shut off right before she whispers “uh-oh” and runs out of the room.
I had so many questions about what just happened.. then we found 2nd hand footage at the end. I cannot believe it. pic.twitter.com/BfN1sNAsg8
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) April 26, 2020
A good sport about the whole thing, Hamlin humorously recapped what happened.
“That was unfortunate, my daughter came in with a remote and essentially ended our day. That’s something you just don’t hear every day, folks.”
This wasn’t the first time Hamlin’s daughter has interfered with one of his virtual races. Last month during their first racing event, she brought him a bottle of Coke which sprayed all over his racing simulator when he opened it.
Did I do that? – Taylor@CocaColaRacing #CokePartner pic.twitter.com/IP8QwDDfkh
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) March 22, 2020
Hamlin was able to get some payback for this particular incident though. Another video was posted on his Twitter account where the two of them were playing “the floor is lava.” At the end of the game, he grabs a Coke bottle, shakes it up, and sprays her with it.
Gotta get to my car. The floor is lava 🌋 #CokePartner @CocaColaRacing pic.twitter.com/yfv15InemB
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) April 6, 2020
It’s safe to assume she’s more than likely to remain a part of his at-home pit crew.
Watch all the highlights of Sunday’s race in the video below.