Denny Hamlin said that someone sent him a crass anti-Asian meme that poked fun at Kyle Larson’s driving and out it went without a care — from his mobile phone to Twitter.
“I thought it was hilarious,” Hamlin said on Saturday. “Also, it’s insensitive. I understand.”
He did not laugh long. NASCAR and scores of fans and casual observers who lashed out at Hamlin for linking Larson’s ancestry — he is half Japanese — with an offensive stereotype linked to Asian drivers certainly did not find the meme funny.
Photo: AP
Hamlin is headed to NASCAR-mandated sensitivity training after he posted the anti-Asian meme from the television comedy Family Guy to criticize Larson’s driving on April 24 on the last lap at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I respect their decision. I understand where they are with it,” Hamlin said at Dover Motor Speedway.
Hamlin deleted the tweet on Monday last week and apologized.
Larson moved up the track multiple lanes in an aggressive move that caused a wreck at Talladega.
“I saw the correlation in the driving. That was it,” Hamlin said. “I didn’t even think twice about the other [part]. That’s the insensitive part, right? Whoever created it, I guess, put his name in front of a woman who’s speaking Asian. I guess you’re making fun of that.”
Hamlin is a three-time Daytona 500 winner who drives a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan and fields two cars supported by the Japanese automaker — one driven by Bubba Wallace, the only black driver at NASCAR’s top level.
In the meme, an Asian woman speaks in choppy English before moving across six lanes of traffic with no warning, reflecting a racist stereotype about Asian drivers. Larson’s name was superimposed over the female driver in the meme.
Hamlin’s post was up nearly seven hours before he deleted it.
“No hard feelings from me,” Larson said. “I think after he put it out there, he realized how offensive it could be.”
Larson was suspended for most of the 2020 season for using a racial slur and lost his ride driving for Chip Ganassi, his sponsors and needed to complete a sensitivity training course for reinstatement.
Larson returned to the sport driving for Hendrick Motorsports and won the 2021 Cup championship.
Larson is friends with Hamlin and said of the meme, “I personally wasn’t offended by it.”
“I think NASCAR did what they had to do and I appreciate Denny going through the steps to learn from that,” he said. “Obviously, it was just poor judgement on his part. I think being in the position that we’re in, you have to be very careful with what you put out into the public. I know he’ll learn a lot from it here the next couple of weeks. I think we’re all ready to move past it and get back focused on racing.”
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