The Denver Post on Monday said a sportswriter was no longer an employee of the paper after he tweeted his discomfort with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend.

On Sunday Takuma Sato became the first driver from Japan to win the iconic race, prompting Terry Frei to dispatch this controversial missive:

Twitter

The now-deleted tweet earned him plenty of backlash and perhaps cost him his job.

“We apologize for the disrespectful and unacceptable tweet that was sent by one of our reporters,” the Post wrote in a statement Monday. “Terry Frei is no longer an employee of The Denver Post. It’s our policy not to comment further on personnel issues.”

Here’s a sampling of the comments on Twitter in response to Frei’s tweet Sunday:

@TFrei SPECIFICALLY personal, i am very uncomfortable w your racism, xenophobia & lack of understanding of what the Indianapolis 500 is all about — megan brown (@thatgirlondeck) May 28, 2017

I don't understand how people are still dumb enough to publicize that they think this way. https://t.co/T6XqNxikKZ — Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) May 28, 2017

Hello @TFrei I would like to buy the rights to "Never Tweet: The Terry Frei Story", do you have an email address for Jeanne? pic.twitter.com/iQySEIAA9y — Dan Lucero (@danluceroshow) May 28, 2017

Frei issued a long-winded apology late Sunday, linking his sentiments to a Sunday gravesite visit of his father, who flew missions over Japanese targets during World War II.

OK, I took out the name of a book. pic.twitter.com/b953FbqMEh — Terry Frei (@TFrei) May 29, 2017

That didn’t go over well either. Users called him a “racist” and an “embarrassment” and also criticized the effectiveness of the apology.

His employer also sent out an apology Sunday before announcing Monday that he was no longer with the paper.

The Denver Post's statement on Terry Frei: pic.twitter.com/0YAmYawW7q — The Denver Post (@denverpost) May 29, 2017

This post has been updated to include news that Terry Frei no longer works at The Denver Post.