This is why a Denver sportswriter was fired after tweeting about Japanese Indy 500 winner

Terry Frei, sportswriter at The Denver Post, lost his job on Monday after tweeting that Japanese race car driver Takuma Sato's win at the Indy 500 made him "uncomfortable."

"Nothing specifically personal, but I am very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend," he wrote Sunday on Twitter, and immediately faced an intense amount of backlash.

Frei tweeted about Sato's win approximately an hour after Sato became the first Japanese winner in the Indy 500's history.

Frei was called racist and xenophobic in an avalanche of Twitter criticisms, and he eventually deleted the original tweet.

He did, however, later fire off another tweet that was apparently directed at the response he'd received over his initial tweet decrying Sato's Indy 500 win.

“THIS is what Memorial Day is about. Dave Schreiner’s death in Battle of Okinawa," Frei wrote. "Not for squeamish or ‘sensitive.'”

He later deleted that tweet as well after receiving more critical response.

Frei eventually apologized, and simply wrote, "I apologize," but on Monday was fired from his position at The Denver Post.

The Post wrote:

"We apologize for the disrespectful and unacceptable tweet that was sent out 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 tweet doesn't represent what we believe nor what we stand for. We hope you will accept our profound apologies."

On Monday, Frei explained his reasoning behind the tweet and doubled down on his apology.

Frei addressed the controversy on Twitter and wrote that he'd "fouled up." Frei also clarified his tweet regarding Memorial Day, and explained that it was an "emotional weekend."

See Frei's full statement on the matter below.

OK, I took out the name of a book. pic.twitter.com/b953FbqMEh

— Terry Frei (@TFrei) May 29, 2017