NASCAR has ordered Denny Hamlin to complete sensitivity training after a tweet the Joe Gibbs Racing driver posted on Monday about Kyle Larson.
Hamlin posted a meme from the TV show Family Guy that had Larson’s name imposed over a female Asian driver. In posting the clip Hamlin first wrote, “I leave this here without comment.” In a second tweet, he said, “Let me say this. I tweet this because A it’s funny as (expletive). B because we are friends.”
The clip made fun of Asian drivers for not signaling and changing lanes – a reference to Larson’s move during the last lap on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Running second to Erik Jones coming through the tri-oval, Larson made an abrupt move to the right across multiple lanes when trying to make a winning move. But in doing so, he collided with 23XI Racing’s Kurt Busch, who hit the wall and then came back into traffic and collected teammate Bubba Wallace. Both cars are co-owned by Hamlin.
NASCAR said Hamlin must start the sensitivity training process by the end of the week. Cup Series teams are back on track Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway.
After deleting his meme tweet a few hours later, Hamlin offered an apology.
“I took down a post I made earlier today after reading some of the comments,” Hamlin wrote. “It was a poor choice of memes and I saw how it was offensive. It came across totally wrong. I apologize.”
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