Denny Hamlin has been the talk of the NASCAR world for the past 24 hours, for all the wrong reasons.
Hamlin tweeted out a meme from Family Guy of an Asian woman cutting across traffic, mocking Kyle Larson (who is half Japanese) for taking out two 23XI cars at Talladega this past weekend, which is the team Hamlin owns with Michael Jordan.
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.
Denny shared a meme along with the caption “I leave this here without comment.”
Needless to say, he took a ton of heat for the tweet, and even though he and Kyle are good friends, he took down the post and later apologized for the poor choice.
“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.”
With that being said, NASCAR has ordered Hamlin to begin sensitivity training, according to the Associated Press.
Toyota released a statement about Hamlin’s punishment, saying:
“We have spoken with Denny Hamlin regarding his tweet from yesterday. Toyota supports NASCAR’s decision to mandate sensitivity training for Denny and we will all move forward together.”
NASCAR’s rulebook states that members:
“shall not make or cause to be made a public statement and/or communication that criticizes, ridicules, or otherwise disparages another person based upon that person’s race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition.”
Of course, Larson is no stranger to sensitivity training himself.
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.
Hamlin himself, ran out of gas at Talldega…
