NASCAR ‘would do the same thing again’ in Bubba Wallace issue

NASCAR President Steve Phelps stated that the sport “would do this again” regarding the investigation into the so-called “noose” in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall.

Upon the conclusion of the FBI investigation that determined there was no hate crime associated with a so-called “noose” in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace’s #43 Richard Petty Motorsports team at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR President Steve Phelps addressed the media.

This investigation arose after it was reported late Sunday night after the Cup Series race had been postponed until Monday afternoon that somebody had hung a noose in the #43 team’s garage stall.

Wallace is the sport’s lone full-time African-American driver, and given the recent events that have transpired across the United States, he has been the subject of a lot of discussions within the sport, and some of those discussions have caused a divide within the sport’s fanbase.

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As it turns out, this “noose” was nothing more than a scaffold knot that was used as a garage door pull rope, and it had been there since last October, when the most recent Cup Series race had been contested at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama.

As a result, there was no hate crime. NASCAR and the FBI both issued separate statements about the matter, as did Richard Petty Motorsports. Wallace is set to speak on CNN this evening.

Phelps addressed the media in a separate teleconference.

“First of all, I’d like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI for their obviously very swift and thorough work,” Phelps said. “As their statement has said, they’ve concluded their investigation at Talladega Superspeedway and determined that Bubba Wallace was not the target of a hate crime. For us at NASCAR, this is the best result we could hope for. It was disturbing to hear that it was thought that one of our own had committed this heinous act.  It is fantastic to hear from the FBI definitively that there was not a hate crime.”

While this situation turned into a national news story over what was a simple misinterpretation of a rope, Phelps was adamant that NASCAR would do nothing differently if put in the same situation again.

“I do want to make sure everyone understands that if given the evidence that we had was delivered to us on [Sunday] night or late [Sunday] afternoon, we would do the same thing. We would have done the same investigation. It was important for us to do. There is no place in our sport for this type of racism or hatred. It’s not part of who we are as a sport.”

He was appreciative of the cooperation that went into the investigation process.

“I want to make sure that everyone understands that our portion of this with the FBI was something that was — we were very cooperative, as you would expect,” he said. “We provided them with roster information, photographic and video evidence that aided them in their conclusions.

“Additionally, the industry was very supportive.  Not just the members of the 43, and I want to be clear about the 43 team. The 43 team had nothing to do with this. The evidence is very clear that the noose that was in that garage had been in the garage previously. The last race we had had there in October, that noose was present, and it was — the fact that it was not found until a member of the 43 team came there is something that is a fact. We had not been back to the garage. It was a quick one-day show. The crew member went back in there. He looked and saw the noose, brought it to the attention of his crew chief, who then went to the NASCAR series director Jay Fabian, and we launched this investigation.”

He reiterated that nothing would change in the future if present with similar circumstances.

“To be clear, we would do this again. Of the evidence that we had, it was clear that we needed to look into this.”