Almost immediately after NASCAR announced a noose was found in Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. and the No. 43 car’s garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, there were plenty of folks who tried to discredit it.
A bunch of people argued that it was similar to what they saw with actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging his own attack in 2019 and initially was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report.
NASCAR president Steve Phelps had a conference call with reporters to address the noose incident and made sure to speak on those false claimers.
“I can’t speak for those on social media who would say this is a staged event. I would say that is something that personally offends me. This is a terrible, terrible act that has happened. For those who would think this is staged, I don’t even know where to go with that frankly.”
NASCAR said it’s “angry and outraged” over what it described as a “heinous act.” It said it opened an investigation to identify who is responsible for putting a noose in the No. 43 team’s garage “and eliminate them from the sport.”
Phelps reiterated NASCAR’s response, saying:
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“Unequivocally, they will be banned from this sport for life. There is no room for this at all. We won’t tolerate it. They won’t be here. I don’t care who they are, they will not be here.”
