Last weekend, Kyle Larson made a move during a NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway that resulted in a multi-car wreck. Fellow driver Denny Hamlin decided to react to the incident by tweeting a video from the television show “Family Guy” to poke fun at the accident, though the insensitive nature of the video led to a strong backlash.
The video depicts an Asian woman driving poorly, a longstanding negative stereotype towards Asians in America. That, coupled with the fact that Larson is of Japanese descent, led Hamlin to apologize for the tweet soon after, noting his “poor choice of memes.”
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
NASCAR then announced that Hamlin would need to complete sensitivity training by the end of this week.
This past weekend, Larson was asked by Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass about the tweet and offered his thoughts on the matter.
Kyle Larson says NASCAR did what it had to do in response to Denny Hamlin’s tweet. Larson: “I wasn’t personally offended by it, … but I know, and I think he knows now, there are millions of other people that a tweet like that could offend.” pic.twitter.com/lK7IEI3Ufq
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 30, 2022
“I wasn’t personally offended by it … but I know, and I think he knows now, there are millions of other people that a tweet like that could offend,” Larson said. “No hard feelings from me. But I think after you put something out there, you realize how offensive it can be.”
Larson did note that what happened was “poor judgment” on Hamlin’s part and that “being in the position that we’re in, you have to be very careful with what you put out in the public.”
“I know he’ll learn a lot here these next couple of weeks, and I think we’re all just ready to move past it and get back focused on racing,” Larson added.
