Bubba Wallace is very grateful for the work NASCAR and the FBI put in during the noose investigation. It was announced on Tuesday afternoon, the noose left in Wallace’s garage at the Talladega Superspeedway was not targeted at Wallace. And while fans are calling Wallace out for a false claim, the only full-time Black NASCAR driver is happy with how everything turned out.
“It’s been an emotional few days, ” Wallace wrote on Twitter. “First off, I want to say how relieved I am that the investigation revealed that this wasn’t what we feared it was. I want to thank my team, NASCAR and the FBI for acting swiftly and treating this as a real threat. I think we’ll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been, Make no mistake, though some will try. this should not detract from the show of unity we had on Monday, and the progress we’ve made as a sport to be a more welcoming environment for all.” Wallace has been making the media rounds reacting to the results of the investigation. Despite not being targeted in a hate crime, Wallace believes the rope tied to the garage was a noose.
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“Don, the image that I have seen of what was hanging in my garage is not a garage pull,” Wallace said to CNN’s Don Lemon. “I’ve been racing all my life. We’ve raced out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pulls like that. People that want to call it a garage pull put out old videos and photos of knots as their evidence go ahead.” Wallace continued, saying, “it’s a straight-up noose,” which is what the FBI announced.
Wallace never saw the rope in person because he wasn’t allowed to go into the garage due to the COVD-19 social distancing procedures. A team member discovered the rope and reported it to NASCAR president Steve Phelps. Once Phelps got the information, he told Wallace, and both released a statement. The FBI was brought in to investigate and it was determined the rope tied a like a noose was there last year. However, Phelps said no other ropes at the garages are tied like a noose. Phelps said NASCAR will continue to investigate to see why the rope at Wallace’s garage was tied like a noose.
