NASCAR: Bubba Wallace releases statement on noose, FBI

NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace has released a statement about the happenings of the last few days in regard to the apparent noose found in his garage stall.

What NASCAR had described as a “heinous act” and what Bubba Wallace described as a “despicable act of racism and hatred” turned out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding over a rope in the midst of times when racial tensions are at an all-time high — not a hate crime.

An apparent noose was found in the garage stall of Wallace’s #43 Richard Petty Motorsports team at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday evening, and that led to an FBI investigation.

The FBI unearthed the conclusion that this same “noose”, which NASCAR later described as a “garage pull rope fashioned like a noose”, had been in this exact stall since the October race at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama.

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At the time, the #21 Wood Brothers Racing team occupied this stall, and the FBI also confirmed that nobody could have known that it would be the lone African-American Cup Series driver who ended up with this particular stall for this race, especially considering the fact that the race was pushed back from late April due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Wallace went on CNN Tonight on Tuesday evening with Don Lemon to share his side of the story. While he maintained that it was a “straight-up noose”, he admitted that he was not being targeted and that the initial reaction to the reports that a noose had been found “kind of looks bad”.

Now Wallace has taken to Twitter to share his own statement about what has gone down over the last few days. Once again, he admitted to the embarrassment of the situation, but he shared his relief that no hate crime had been committed.

He released this statement after sharing another tweet about integrity, which was his first tweet following the conclusion of the FBI’s investigation, aside of the tweet letting fans know that he would be appearing on Lemon’s show.

Bubba Wallace and the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field are set to be back in action this Saturday, June 27 at Pocono Raceway with the Pocono Organics 325, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.