Auto racer Kyle Larson is back on the track again, only three weeks after facing a firestorm of controversy over his use of the “n-word” during a video game broadcast on the Internet.
Larson is scheduled to compete in the World of Outlaws event at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa on Friday. The race is not a NASCAR affiliated event.
Larson, 27, was last in the news on April 14 when he was fired by the Chip Ganassi Racing team and cast out of NASCAR for using the offensive word during an online racing game event.
Several NASCAR drivers were playing the video racing game, but at one point, it appeared that Larson thought that his audio feed had been cut off, and while trying to get the attention of the other players, he spoke the “n-word.”
The Ganassi team immediately suspended Larson, but they also began losing sponsors such as McDonald’s and Credit One Bank before the team finally fired him.
The driver soon issued an apology in a video posted to social media.
“I made a mistake, said the word that should never, ever be said,” Larson said in the video. “There is no excuse for that. I wasn’t raised that way. It is just an awful thing to say. I feel very sorry for my family, my friends, my partners, the NASCAR community, and especially the African-American community.”
“I understand the damage is probably unrepairable, and I own up to that,” he added.
Larson, whose Japanese grandparents spent time in an internment camp during World War II, rose up in NASCAR through its “Drive for Diversity” program. He is also the only driver of Japanese descent to win a major NASCAR race.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
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