FBI Says Noose Found in Bubba Wallace’s Garage Wasn’t a Hate Crime
The FBI said Tuesday that a noose found Sunday in the garage stall of Nascar driver Bubba Wallace had been there for months, and did not appear to have been targeting the lone black driver at the highest level of the sport.
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AUTO RACING
FBI Says Noose Found in Bubba Wallace’s Garage Wasn’t a Hate Crime
An investigation has shown that the noose found in the garage stall of Nascar’s lone black driver on Sunday had been there for months and wasn’t targeting him
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday that a noose found Sunday in the garage stall of Nascar driver Bubba Wallace had been there for months, and did not appear to have been targeting the lone black driver at the highest level of the sport.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney Jay Town of Alabama’s Northern District said that agents had reviewed video evidence showing the presence of the noose since at least October 2019, well before the stall was assigned to Wallace ahead of the planned start of the race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.
“Although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week,” they said in a joint statement. It is unclear why a noose had been in the garage for so long. Nascar, in a statement, referred to it as a “garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose.”
“We appreciate the FBI’s quick and thorough investigation and are thankful to learn that this was not an intentional, racist act against Bubba,” Nascar said.
The FBI’s announcement that the noose was not evidence of a hate crime comes after a charged two days in which the racing circuit expressed revulsion over the alleged incident. Before the race at Talladega was run on Monday, a day late because of a weather delay, rival drivers and their crews marched on the track behind Wallace’s car as a show of solidarity with him.
The discovery of the noose on Sunday came as the sport was already grappling with heightened tensions over race. In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Wallace emerged a leading activist in the predominantly white sport, calling for a ban on Confederate flags at races and driving a car with the message “Black Lives Matter” on it. Nascar had embraced Wallace’s car, and implemented a ban of Confederate flags inside its venues.
Outside Talladega Superspeedway, in Lincoln, Ala., on Sunday, when the race was originally scheduled, fans paraded with Confederate flags in defiance of the new rule. The race was then postponed because of inclement weather until Monday, when the investigation was launched into the incident.
Nascar had previously said that a crew member had found the noose and that the crew member contacted Nascar security. Nascar president Steve Phelps said that he gathered senior executives after the incident and informed Wallace of what had happened.
Phelps said he had asked the FBI to begin an investigation of the incident early Monday morning, telling reporters that only a few racing personnel would have had access to the garage amid tight security and restrictions imposed by the novel coronavirus, and that any suggestion that the incident had been faked “is something that personally offends me.”
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all who love racing,” Nascar said on Tuesday.
Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com and Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com