Back in April of 2022, the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran ended up in deep waters after what seemed to be an inappropriate post against his fellow driver and friend Kyle Larson. According to media reports Hamlin had posted a short clip from The Family Guy, which was deemed as a racist joke against Asian drivers.
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The post itself showed an Asian woman speaking about turn signals in a stereotyped accent. Hamlin superimposed Larson over the video and when the cartoon clip ended it transitioned to the footage of the HMS driver’s 2022 wreck at Talladega Superspeedway.
Not long after the backlash Hamlin deleted his offensive post and released an apology regarding the incident. He mentioned, “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
Denny Hamlin was sent for sensitivity training after the incident transpired
Despite his public apology, NASCAR mandated that Hamlin had to go through sensitivity training as soon as possible. The main reason for sending him through sensitivity training was because of Larson’s Japanese ancestry (his mother is half Japanese) and the original tweet by Hamlin had violated NASCAR’s rulebook.
The rulebook mentioned that everybody associated with NASCAR was NOT allowed to criticize, ridicule, or otherwise disparage anyone based on that person’s race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition.
Even if Hamlin had intended the post as a joke towards his friend, the context was not justifiable. And this was the whole saga as to why the JGR veteran had to apologize for his actions to the 2022 Cup Series champion, Larson.
