Bubba Wallace is extremely thankful that the investigation into a possible noose being left in his garage stall was not what everybody thought it was.
It was announced on Tuesday the noose left in Wallace’s garage at the Talladega Superspeedway was not targeted at Wallace, but rather it was a noose that was simply a garage pull down rope.
The only full-time Black NASCAR driver took to Twitter on Wednesday and released a statement.
“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.”
Despite not being targeted in a hate crime, Wallace believes the rope tied to the garage was a noose.
“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.
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It should be noted that 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. It would be Phelps to contact Wallace about the incident.
Phelps said NASCAR will continue to investigate to see why the rope at Wallace’s garage was tied like a noose.
