Denny Hamlin will be required to complete a sensitivity training course following a social media post he had made on April 25, NASCAR announced April 26.
According to NASCAR, Hamlin must begin the process for the training by the end of this week. The NASCAR Cup Series is racing this weekend at Dover Motor Speedway.
The social media post made by the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was directed toward driver Kyle Larson after the latter had made an ill-timed block on the last lap of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
The block caused a large crash that collected both of the 23XI Racing cars of Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch, which are co-owned by Hamlin.
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
Hamlin’s tweet featured a clip of the show Family Guy in which an Asian woman veers into traffic.
Hamlin has since deleted the post and later issued an apology.
About the author
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
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Hang him by his toes.
Long over so-called ‘Political Correctness’ …at least a decade ago.
That said, I cannot fathom how NASCAR justifies a suspension for Larson when his one word was nothing more or less than Hamlin’s actions (and his words in the past)? Yet Hamlin is merely ordered to attend what amounts to a high school class.
My first thought exactly funny how that occurs when ur driving for the big three
Good grief! (hope I’m not offending Charlie Brown fans).
Oh brother
No love for Hamlin from me but this is just ridiculous PC BS.
I am so sick of that group of people that just sit around looking for things to get offended over. Geez, what a road of clap.
It’s ok to punch a guy in the face but posting a family guy meme is what really gets you in hot water.
I almost feel sorry for Denny. Love me some Family Guy. I guess Asian stereotypes are off the plate now. Maybe Denny is advocating for the use of turn signals in NASCAR’s premier racing series. Kyle should give Denny a referral to his former sensitivity trainer.
Among decent people, racism is always off the table. But perhaps that just how I was raised.
Agreed. However rational people can recognize an attempt at humor (regardless of how tasteful) without being triggered. The racism here is all on NASCAR’s part. The Asian-American who utters a slur is suspended and attempted to be cancelled. The white guys who A. Slur the intellectually disabled and B. Slur Asian-Americans are given a slap on the wrist and allowed to continue.
Let me know when we can no longer use derogatory stereotypes of white males from certain non-urban areas of the country.
Suspend Denny for the year, plus playoffs.
Aren’t “playoffs” included in the year?
Oh, well next year’s playoffs too.
Another decision making me wonder who’s really in charge!
NA$CAR can’t seem to come up with equality in punishment. An Asian-American gets suspended for the remainder of the year for an ethnic slur. The White driver that ethnically slurs that very same Asian-American gets a slap on the wrist with ‘sensitivity training’. And the Asian based manufacturer of the cars used by the White driver isn’t upset by the slur?
The insane inequality here is evident and noted by most of the comments, including the “overreaction” point of view on both the Larson and Hamlin incidents. But there’s absolutely no way it makes sense the Larson’s spontaneous but inappropriate “racist” comment was in any way more serious that Hamlin’s deliberate “racist” post. How does losing one’s ride plus suspension in any way compare “attend sensitivity training?”
As a driver, Hamlin should be suspended the rest of this season. So much for NASCAR’s zero tolerance tap dancing.
As an owner, Hamlin should not be allowed to run his team for the remainder of this season..
We all know NASCAR’s relationship with Toyota. Toyota owns Daytona Beach. NASCAR will do whatever Toyota tells NASCAR to do. Joe Gibbs and Michael Jordan will use their influence to soothe sponsors and the cancel culture crowd.
Kyle Larson drove for Chip Ganassi when he was fired. Ganassi was on the way out of NASCAR. Woke sponsors like Mc Donald’s used this as an opportunity to align with Bubba BLM Wallace. McDonald’s has such a great relationship with their minority owners and employees (sarcasm). A perfect fit.
No need for creative writers and their storytelling on this one folks. You can’t make this stuff up.
Imagine if the meme was of Bubba!
Just think, what would Dale Sr. do?
Drivers of that era wouldn’t last a week before they had some issue with behavior which would lead to an issue with the sponsors.
I can’t quite feel the outrage against NASCAR for penalizing Hamlin. Even though it was an over-reaction to a harmless meme, it was Denny, so “Meh”…
Hmmm, the half Asian-American is suspended indefinitely and almost completely cancelled, the white guy has to attend sensitivity training (whatever that is) and the half African-American gets nothing for his racist and “insensitive” tweets. What has NASCRAP become anymore? Boys, this ain’t what NASCAR was anymore.