NASCAR makes decision on Denny Hamlin suspension

Denny Hamlin won’t miss time following a tweet directed at Kyle Larson that was deemed “insensitive”, provided he checks off one box.

Coming to the checkered flag in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson threw a terrible block that sent the #45 23XI Racing Toyota of Kurt Busch into the wall. The wreck also collected the other 23XI Racing car, the #23 Toyota of Bubba Wallace, and left Wallace visibly shaken afterward.

Team co-owner Denny Hamlin, who finished in 18th place behind the wheel of his own #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, shared a Family Guy clip featuring a woman asking, “How much signal I need to cut across eight lanes? None? I turn now. Good luck everybody else!”

The video literally fit Larson’s move perfectly, while also expressing Hamlin’s frustration with seeing his two cars wrecked at the last second. But it did so in a seemingly lighthearted way, considering Hamlin’s friendship with Larson.

When some took offense to it, Hamlin even responded defending the video. However, he later deleted both the video and the response and issued an apology.

NASCAR determined that Hamlin must now complete sensitivity training, and in order to compete in this coming Sunday’s race at Dover Motor Speedway, he needs to have started the process by Friday.

Toyota representatives stated the following.

"“We have spoken with Denny Hamlin regarding his tweet from yesterday. Toyota supports NASCAR’s decision to mandate sensitivity training for Denny and we will all move forward together.”"

Past penalties involving mandated sensitivity training have effectively been considered “indefinite suspensions”, as the driver must complete the training before returning to action.

However, because of the timing, Hamlin simply needs to have begun the process by Friday to avoid missing any time. If that process isn’t started by then, he could run the risk of missing races, but that isn’t a likely scenario.

The reason for this decision is because of the fact that the woman in the video is Asian and Larson is of Asian descent.

As evidenced by Hamlin’s apology, it obviously wasn’t meant to come across in a racially insensitive manner; the joke was simply meant to be about Larson cutting across “eight lanes” of traffic, yet some read into it and NASCAR decided to respond.

Ironically, Family Guy is an animated television show that airs on Fox. Sunday’s race was broadcast on Fox. So this decision to penalize a driver for using a so-called “offensive” Family Guy clip left many baffled, and justifiably so.

The same exact video could have been shared by Hamlin — or anybody else — had any other driver done what Larson did, and it likely would have gone unpunished, because the sentiment of throwing a bad block is the same.

But the fact that Larson is of Asian descent led many to take offense to it and to assume that it was racially motivated, and now here we are.