The race may be in the books, but the drama from that finish at Talladega ain’t over yet.
Ross Chastain came out the winner of a wild NASCAR Cup Series race this weekend after second place Kyle Larson pulled out of line to try to pass Erik Jones. Jones then threw a block to try to hold off Larson, but it caused Larson to turn right into Kurt Busch, sending Busch into the wall and allowing third place Chastain to hold it on the bottom and get by the mayhem for his second win this season.
WHAT A FINISH. RETWEET TO CONGRATULATE @RossChastain ON HIS WIN AT TALLADEGA! pic.twitter.com/Wz4onpm5es
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 24, 2022
It was the kind of finish – and the kind of racing – that we’ve grown to expect at Talladega, so it really didn’t seem like anybody did anything wrong. It’s just what you’ve gotta do to win at one of these superspeedway races.
But Denny Hamlin apparently had a problem with Larson’s move – maybe because the wreck took out the two 23XI cars, the team that Denny owns with Michael Jordan.
Denny shared a meme on Twitter that spliced Larson’s sudden turn to the right together with a clip from “Family Guy” showing an Asian woman cutting across traffic without using a signal light, along with the caption “I leave this here without comment.”
— Dylan Fink (@Dylan_Fink52) April 26, 2022
But Denny quickly found himself on the receiving end of quite a bit of criticism for the jab at Larson, who is half Japanese.
Hey @NASCAR @JoeGibbsRacing @FedEx how is this not racist? How can you stand for this after what you did to Larson? Joe Gibbs how much longer are you going to put up with this shit from your drivers.
— Craig Wahlberg (@CWahlberg14) April 26, 2022
Yo, @NASCAR – where's @dennyhamlin's sensitivity training!?
— Purple Coyote (@EMAW_AZ) April 25, 2022
I mean it’s a show making fun of the stereotype that Asians are bad drivers, and Kyle Larson is Asian, so you tell me how this could go wrong for Denny
— John Davis (@j_davis01) April 26, 2022
Friends or not that is racist
— Nobody from Nowhere (@randsizemore1) April 26, 2022
Not long after posting the meme, Denny deleted the tweet and issued an apology:
“I took down a post I made earlier today after reading some of the comments. It was a poor choice of memes and I saw how it was offensive. It came across totally wrong. I apologize.”
I took down a post I made earlier today after reading some of the comments. It was a poor choice of memes and I saw how it was offensive. It came across totally wrong. I apologize.
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) April 26, 2022
Overall it seems that the replies to Denny’s tweet were largely supportive, with many speculating that Denny was asked to take it down by either NASCAR, his car owner, his sponsors, or his team co-owner Michael Jordan.
Many also pointed out that Larson had his own issues with racial sensitivity in the past, after he was suspended for nearly the entire 2020 season and lost his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing when he was caught using a racial slur during an iRacing event while NASCAR was shut down due to the pandemic.
It was a funny meme, but especially after Kyle's choice of words two years ago, anything that is close to offensive would be wiser to delete
— Andrew Winslow (@a_winslow19) April 26, 2022
I think it gave most of us a good laugh. Absolutely no worries for anything.
— Poorly Aged NASCAR Tweets (@AgedNascar) April 26, 2022
Apologize for what???? There was nothing wrong with that
— x-RANGERSIN4 (@MarkJones427) April 26, 2022
Don’t understand how people even find that offensive
— Dillon Goodwin (@dgoodwin4824) April 26, 2022
And those sensitive people are the reason why funny things can't be said anymore. Denny to me and the majority of us that post was hilarious.
— Natethesnake3 🇺🇸 (@NateWines4) April 26, 2022
As of right now NASCAR said anything about the tweet, but based on past precedent, if I had to guess, there’s probably some sensitivity training in Denny’s future.
Coming Soon: Denny Hamlin Takes Sensitivity Training.
— 🏁 Allen Bedgood 🇺🇸 (@RacingBedgood) April 26, 2022
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
