It may not have been a hate crime, but NASCAR provided photo evidence on Thursday that there was, indeed, a noose inside Bubba Wallace’s garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend.
NASCAR released a photo to the media that showed the garage pull inside Wallace’s garage stall, and the rope was clearly tied into a noose.
NASCAR releases photo to the media of the garage pull rope formed as a noose from the Bubba Wallace garage Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
This image was provide by NASCAR. pic.twitter.com/Z4ZyBzpREF— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) June 25, 2020
The rope led to an investigation involving both the FBI and NASCAR officials. It was initially believed that the noose had been tied as a racist message intended for Wallace, but it was later determined that the noose had been in the garage since last year. NASCAR president Steve Phelps discussed the incident on Thursday, saying the organization should have used the word “alleged” in its initial statement after the rope was discovered. Phelps also said Wallace’s garage was the only one of more than 1,600 across 29 race tracks that had a noose hanging inside.
.@NASCAR president Steve Phelps says they should have used the word "alleged" in the initial statement Sunday night.
But he says the noose was real, and they were geniunely concerned for Bubba Wallace. He said it was the only rope in the garage fashioned that way.
— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) June 25, 2020
NASCAR president Steve Phelps says NASCAR conducted a "thorough sweep of all 29 tracks where they race, and 1684 garage stalls, they found only 11 total ropes that had a pulldown rope tied in a knot, and just one noose: The one in Bubba Wallace garage."
— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) June 25, 2020
Phelps said the investigation determined that the noose was tied at some point during a race at Talladega in October 2019. The noose was not there at the start of the weekend, but it was there after Wood Brothers Racing occupied the garage. It’s unclear what the intent was.
Steve Phelps: We did have a lot of conversations with Wood Brothers (whose car was parked in that garage in Oct. 2019) we could not determine if it was someone on their team or someone else. We have no idea what the intent was.
— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) June 25, 2020
Photo evidence showed that the noose was hanging in the garage last year. While Wallace acknowledged this week that it was not intended for him, he seemed unconvinced that the noose was not an act of racism.
Wallace has successfully lobbied for the banning of Confederate flags at NASCAR races. The 26-year-old is the only full-time black driver on NASCAR’s top three series.
