On Monday, NASCAR’s drivers and teams all gathered to push Bubba Wallace’s car down pit road in a show of solidarity after NASCAR announced late Saturday night that a noose had been found in Wallace’s garage stall at Talladega. The FBI got involved to investigate the matter, and on Tuesday, their report came out, determining that the rope tied like a noose had been in the stall since October 2019.
Full statement from FBI: #nascar @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/wJY14YDGDK
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 23, 2020
NASCAR’s statement on the matter offered more detail into where the noose was, as it was apparently the garage door pull rope that had been tied like a noose.
NASCAR's statement on the FBI completing its investigation and what the investigation determined. pic.twitter.com/X8gEFXhqjt
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) June 23, 2020
The Wood Brothers racing team had that stall a year ago, and a team member recalled seeing that garage pull-rope being fashioned in a noose.
STATEMENT ON THE COINCIDENCE OF OUR STALL FROM 2019 AND THE INVESTIGATION pic.twitter.com/SJgKus8o8T
— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) June 23, 2020
Apologies for not knowing who originally created this image, but it has been making the rounds on Twitter and turned out to be correct. You can see in the left photo the rope was in noose form — apparently as a handle — last year and then cut for evidence Sunday. pic.twitter.com/MIrtF3uqtN
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) June 23, 2020
Now, while it is good that there was not a noose placed in Wallace’s pit stall as a racist threat by someone within NASCAR, this raises more questions. Namely, why someone would tie a garage pull-rope in the fashion of a noose and why no one that saw it ever thought that should probably be retied in any other way that wouldn’t look like a noose?
The FBI’s report also led to some celebrating from those who theorized it was a false report from Wallace, which NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck quickly explained was a ridiculous accusation.
