NASCAR: Bubba Wallace warns of photoshopped noose images

By Asher Fair | Jun 24, 2020

Bubba Wallace, Talladega, NASCAR, Cup Series (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace warned that certain images of the apparent noose found in his garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway may be photoshopped.

After an FBI investigation, it was determined that the apparent noose in the NASCAR garage stall of Bubba Wallace’s #43 Richard Petty Motorsports team at Talladega Superspeedway was not placed there as a racist hate crime against the lone African-American driver of the Cup Series, as the sport initially reported.

It was determined that this rope, which NASCAR has since described as a “garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose”, had been in that exact stall since at least the October playoff race at the track. As for how Wallace’s team ended up in that stall this time around, it was purely by chance.

Monday’s race, postponed from Sunday due to rain, at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama wasn’t even originally on the schedule; it was rescheduled from Sunday, April 26 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

On Tuesday evening, Wallace discussed the situation with CNN’s Don Lemon, from how he was notified about the presence of the apparent noose by NASCAR President Steve Phelps up until the FBI confirmed that no hate crime had been committed.

As for how he is going to deal with the NASCAR fanbase’s response to the FBI’s findings, especially with this ruling coming after he made statements that it was a “despicable act of racism and hatred” and that anyone who thought otherwise was “simple-minded”, he stated that there will always be haters. He went on to warn that photoshop may play a role in peoples’ views of the situation as well.

“The backlash will always be there,” Wallace told Lemon. “It doesn’t matter if we provide 100% facts and evidence, photo evidence. People are going to photoshop it to make me look like a bad person. At the end of the day, I will always have haters.”

As far as photoshop is concerned, Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass already shared a completely trustworthy and non-doctored image that he took himself back in October during the race weekend at the track.

UPDATE: NASCAR shares photo of what was found in the garage stall

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

Indeed, the rope was located in the same stall in October as it was this past weekend, more then eight months later. That stall was then occupied by the #21 Wood Brothers Racing team. Their driver at the time was Paul Menard, although he was actually replaced by Truck Series driver Matt Crafton during the race for medical reasons.

So while this rope could be mistaken for a noose, it also did, in fact, serve as a garage pull. And yes, both can be true — that’s the whole reason we have gotten to this point to begin with.

Home/NASCAR Cup Series