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Bubba Wallace -- NASCAR's only top-level African-American driver -- says he spoke to Kyle Larson about his N-word incident ... and has accepted his apology.

26-year-old Wallace says Larson called him on the phone 5 minutes after using the slur Sunday night during an iRacing event that was publicly streamed on Twitch.

After ignoring multiple calls, Wallace says he finally accepted a FaceTime from Larson the following day, so they could speak "face to face."

"We had a good conversation, his apology was sincere. His emotions and pride were shattered."

Wallace says, "We discussed why he chose to use that language and I shared my thoughts. I told him, it was too easy for him to use the word and he has to do better and get it out of his vocabulary."

"There is no place for that word in this world. I am not mad at him, and I believe that he, along with most people, deserve second chances, and deserve space to improve."

"I do wish him and his family nothing but the best. And, I am more than willing to work with him to address diversity and inclusion in our sport."

Wallace also explained why the word is so damn offensive -- and has no place in any part of society ... especially NASCAR.

"It’s NOT just a word. There is a ton of negative meaning behind the word. Doesn’t matter if a person uses it in an offensive way or not. The word brings many terrible memories for people and families and brings them back to a time that WE as a community and human race have tried our hardest to get away from."

"The sport has made combatting this stereotype one of their top priorities. NASCAR has been doing what it can to get away from the ‘racist and redneck sport’ labels. Diversity and inclusion is a main priority for the sport across every team, every car, every crew member and employee. With that said, it hurts to see the African-American community immediately throw NASCAR under the bus with the ‘I’m not shocked it’s NASCAR.’"

He added, "NASCAR has been, and will be way better than how we’ve been represented in the last couple of weeks. As the person that arguably has the biggest voice on this topic in our sport, it’s tough for me to speak to because I didn’t imagine us being here."

For his part, Larson issued a public video apology -- but it didn't save his job or sponsors.

Brian Dennehy -- the veteran actor whose career spanned 5 decades on the stage and screen -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us Dennehy died Wednesday night in Connecticut ... we're told he passed of natural causes and there will not be an official autopsy.

The actor's career began in the '70s with a run of small guest roles on TV shows like "Kojak," "M*A*S*H," "Lou Grant" and "Dallas" ... before landing a recurring role on "Dynasty" in 1981.

That led to his big breakout movie role the following year -- playing Sheriff Teasle in Sylvester Stallone's Rambo action flick, "First Blood."

He'd go on to star in several films in the '80s and '90s, including "Silverado," "Cocoon," "The Belly of an Architect," "Best Seller," "Presumed Innocent" and "Romeo + Juliet."

Brian's most notable comedy role came in 1995, when he played Big Tom Callahan in the classic Chris Farley-led laugh-fest, "Tommy Boy."

In more recent years, he voiced the character Django in "Ratatouille" and appeared on the hit show, "The Blacklist." All in all, he has nearly 200 film and television credits to his name ... and he won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in 2001 for the TV movie, "Death of a Salesman."

Dennehy was also an accomplished theater actor, winning 2 Tony Awards for Best Actor ... his first for "Death of a Salesman" a couple years before his TV role, and the second for "Long Day's Journey Into Night" in 2003.

In fact, the last time we saw him in 2013, he was in L.A. doing a play ... and he had some good jokes.

Brian's survived by his wife and 5 children. He was 81.

RIP

Joe Exotic is in a desperate situation ... he's isolated in the bowels of a federal prison, unable to fight the government in his $89 million wrongful imprisonment lawsuit, and he's begging the judge for access to a computer and the law library.

The "Tiger King" star just filed a handwritten legal doc, telling the judge he's running out of time to respond to the government's legal docs in the civil lawsuit. Joe says he can't respond without the proper tools, so he wants another 30 days.

Joe says he's been isolated at the Federal Medical Center ... he can't phone anyone, email them ... he has no access to the outside world.

This syncs up with our TMZ Investigation, which aired on Fox last Monday. We were told he was in isolation because inmates from the previous facility where Joe was housed tested positive for the virus. The prison disputes it, but for some reason, he's still in quarantine. His people say Joe is virus-free.

Joe is also appealing his conviction. He has some interesting arguments ... among them, "did the prosecutor throw in animal abuse charges in the murder-for-hire trial just to unfairly prejudice the jury so he'd get convicted?" And, if you saw the special, it's interesting that "hitman" and star prosecution witness Allen Glover revealed a bias by saying he delivered payback to Joe and wished he could have done more to hurt him.

Roy Halladay's dad told investigators he was worried the abuse of prescription meds played a role in his son's fatal plane crash back in Nov. 2017 ... this according to new docs obtained by TMZ Sports.

NTSB officials say in 2 separate interviews with Halladay's father shortly after the fatal flight -- he told them he was worried the ex-Philadelphia Phillies ace might have been abusing Rx drugs.

Investigators claim Halladay's father told them Roy had "enrolled in an in-house detox program for an addiction to Lorazepam" a couple years prior to the accident ... and he told officials he was "concerned that Roy was abusing prescription medications, and that may have played a role in the accident."

As we previously reported, an autopsy revealed Halladay had zolpidem (the generic name for Ambien), as well as morphine in his system at the time he crashed his plane in the Gulf of Mexico.

The tests also came back positive for amphetamines.

Investigators say Halladay's dad told them Roy was suffering from anxiety and depression around the time of the accident.

According to the report, Halladay's dad also told officials he believed back pain, shoulder surgery and anxiety were the only medical ailments the former pitcher suffered from.

There's more ... officials also claim Halladay's father told them Roy often took risks while flying ... saying, "Mr. Halladay had a feeling that his son did not appreciate the dangers involved with flying."

Roy -- who was 40 at the time of the crash -- had tweeted about a conversation with his father just days before the accident, writing, "I keep telling my dad flying the Icon A5 low over the water is like flying a fight jet!"

"His response...... I am flying a fighter jet!!"

Officials also included new photos of the wreckage after it was pulled from the water -- which shows the aircraft was essentially reduced to scrap.

"Love & Hip Hop Atlanta" stars Kirk Frost and Rasheeda are laughing off rumors he adopted her as a teenager and then married her when she was 17 ... and calling out wannabe Internet sleuths they say got it all wrong.

The couple addressed the allegations together in a mocking tone, with Kirk saying he normally doesn't answer "stupid s**t" but felt compelled to do so this time ... probably because some people were buying into it.

Here's some background -- Kirk and Rasheeda have a tumultuous relationship history, but they've made it work and recently celebrated 20 years together ... which has been a big story on 'LHHATL.'

A twitter user took that 20-year timeline and accused Kirk -- without any evidence -- of adopting Rasheeda when she was 15, having relations with her as her parent when she was a minor, and getting married when she was 17 and he was 30. The tweet also compared him to R. Kelly.

Adding fuel to the gossip is the fact Rasheeda's listed age on the Internet is 37, so if they've been together for 20 years ... well, do the math.

Here's the thing ... Rasheeda responded to the tweet with a flat denial, saying she didn't even know Kirk when she was 15 and "wasn't thinkin bout gettin married @ 17."

In the video, Kirk makes it clear he never adopted Rasheeda and denies marrying a minor ... and they both strongly suggest their ages listed online are inaccurate.

Britney Spears mentioning Justin Timberlake at all is one thing, but specifically acknowledging their 2002 breakup in a shout-out video to her ex has everyone's heads spinning ... and JT LOLin'.

Britney's very bored, said so herself, but boredom wasn't enough to get her to join TikTok "or whatever the cool thing you're supposed to do these days." Instead, Britney went on Instagram and danced along to JT's track "Filthy" from his last album "Man of the Woods."

That was pretty significant in and of itself but then she dropped a massive bombshell in her captions saying, "PS I know we had one of the world's biggest breakups 20 years ago ..... but hey the man is a genius!!!! Great song JT."

And to everyone's astonishment ... JT responded with a slew of emojis!!!

Lots to unpack here. It's the first time Britney's directly addressed her breakup with JT. They dated for 3 years before their abrupt breakup in 2002. They were both around 21 at the time.

Later that year, Justin dropped "Cry Me a River" ... which he wrote in 2 hours. Fans have long suspected it's about his failed relationship with Britney. A year later, Britney fired back with "Toxic."

Of course, everyone's moved on nearly 2 decades later ... Britney's had 2 kids with Kevin Federline and she's been dating Sam Asghari for a while now. Justin's married to Jessica Biel and they have a son together.

But leave it to Britney to give y'all one helluva #ThrowbackThursday. BTW, in her caption, she also acknowledges that what she's doing is not really dancing. This may have something to do with it. Either way, thanks for the coronavirus distraction, Brit!!!

Shaquille O'Neal says he's still so emotional about the death of Kobe Bryant, he will NOT watch the 2020 Hall of Fame ceremony because it will simply make him too sad.

Kobe is set to be formally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August -- the ultimate honor for one of the greatest players of all time.

But, Shaq admits he can't muster up the strength to watch -- mostly because he can't handle another bout of soul-crushing sadness after Kobe passed away in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26.

"Still miss him. Still think about him every day," O'Neal said on "The Big Podcast with Shaq."

Shaq says on the "scale of sadness" with 10 being the worst, he's finally at a "2" right now ... and watching the HOF ceremony "would bring me back to a 7, 8, 9 and I can't right now."

O'Neal continued, "It would be great if his wife gave a speech or his mom or dad give a speech but I'll see that afterwards. I'm not gonna watch the ceremony."

He also floated the idea of having a Kobe hologram at the ceremony -- saying it would be "nice" to have a Kobe-gram "sitting next to everyone else."

Kobe's Hall of Fame class is pretty stacked -- he'll be inducted along with Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.

Imagine having twins ... TWICE!!!

That's the reality for WWE superstar Roman Reigns who just revealed his wife Galina is pregnant with twins -- for the second time!

Roman and Galina already have 3 kids -- including a set of twin boys who were born in 2016.

But during an interview with Muscle & Fitness, Roman dropped the big news ... their fam is growing again in a big way!

"You have 3 kids?" the interviewer asked.

"3 with 2 in the oven," Roman answered ... "So, I'm looking to be a Papa Bear of 5! Breaking news! We haven't shared that."

First, CONGRATS!!!

Second, HOLY MOLY THAT'S A LOT OF KIDS!!!

By the way, the odds of having twins naturally is reportedly 1 in every 250 births -- so, in a way, they kinda hit the jackpot twice!

On the other hand, that's a LOT of poopy diapers.

No word on when the kids are due.

Worth noting ... Reigns notably pulled out of WrestleMania 36 just weeks before the April 4 event -- and even though it seemed the decision was based on his health due to prior bouts with leukemia, it now seems the pregnancy may have also played a role.

"You don't know the whole story," Reigns said in a video posted on March 30 ... "All you know is what you think, 'Oh well his health' and this and that, but you don't know what else is going on in my life."

"One of the topics covered in a Major League Baseball course at Arizona State is this player who broke the color barrier in 1947."

COME ON -- EVERYONE KNOWS THE ANSWER ... right?

Wrong.

Because when Xiaoke Ying buzz'd in on "Jeopardy!" on Wednesday night -- she replied, "Babe Ruth!"

WHAT?! NOOO!!!!

It's Jackie Robinson. Obviously.

We thought everyone knew that ... but Xiaoke (from USC) blew it on an episode that coincidentally aired on "Jackie Robinson Day."

Whoops.

Some facts. Babe Ruth did not break the color barrier. He was white. Like super white. German ancestry white.

Jackie Robinson (who went to Xiaoke's rival school UCLA) famously broke the color barrier while a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

Robinson made such an impact in the sports world and on society as a whole, there have been countless movies, documentaries and books written about him.

Also, his jersey #42 has been retired across MLB to honor the legend.