The noose found in the garage of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace’s garage on Sunday was found to be a garage pull rope on a garage door that had been there since 2019 and “no federal crime was committed”, an FBI investigation concluded. The 26-year-old Wallace – NASCAR’s sole full-time black driver – successfully pushed to ban the Confederate flag from races.
In a joint statement, US attorney Jay E. Town and FBI special agent in charge Johnnie Sharp, Jr. said:
“The FBI learned that garage number 4, where the noose was found, was assigned to Bubba Wallace last week. The investigation also revealed evidence, including authentic video confirmed by NASCAR, that the noose found in garage number 4 was in that garage as early as October 2019. 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.”
Wood Brothers Racing were the last team to occupy the garage and they released a statement saying an employee had remembered seeing a “tied handle” on the garage door last October.
NASCAR issued a statement that said, in part, they were “thankful to learn that this was not an intentional, racist act against Bubba”.
Wallace, however, saw things differently saying:
“What was hanging in my garage is not a garage pull. It was a noose,” he told CNN. “Whether tied in 2019 or whatever, it was a noose. So, it wasn’t directed at me but somebody tied a noose. That’s what I’m saying.”