Terry Frei Out at Denver Post After Racial Takuma Sato Tweet

The Denver Post confirmed Monday columnist Terry Frei is no longer with the newspaper after making a racially charged post on social media about Japanese driver Takuma Sato winning the 2017 Indy 500 on Sunday.

Brandon Rittiman of KUSA reported the paper wouldn't say whether Frei was fired or quit after posting a message that read, "I am very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend" on Twitter.

Frei had previously posted an apology:

"We apologize for the disrespectful and unacceptable tweet that was sent by one of our reporters. Terry Frei is no longer an employee of the Denver Post. It's our policy not to comment further on personnel issues," the paper wrote in a statement to KUSA. "The tweet doesn't represent what we believe nor what we stand for. We hope you will accept our profound apologies."

Sato became the first Japanese driver to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. He'd never finished inside the top 10 in the storied race during his seven previous starts but edged Helio Castroneves over the final laps for his second career IndyCar Series victory.

Jerry Garrett of the New York Times passed along comments from the 40-year-old Tokyo native about winning on the sport's biggest stage.

"Hopefully, the crowd enjoyed it," Sato said. "It's beautiful. I dreamed of something like this since I was 12."

Chris Perez of the New York Post noted Frei's tweet caused a firestorm of backlash before he deleted it and posted the subsequent apology.

A biography on the columnist's official website noted he spent 30 years as a sportswriter with the Denver Post before Monday's departure.