NASCAR Releases Additional Details And A Photo Of The ‘Noose’ Found In Bubba Wallace’s Garage

NASCAR president Steve Phelps spoke with the media about the Bubba Wallace noose incident at Talladega. While some have lashed out at Bubba Wallace, including overt racism and Twitter trends likening him to Jussie Smollett, Phelps revealed more details to indicate why the situation was handled as it was.

Here’s the NASCAR-released photo of the noose/rope pull found in Bubba Wallace’s garage at Talladega:

Marty Smith from ESPN and FOX’s Bob Pockrass had explanations from Phelps about NASCAR’s strongly worded initial press release:

.@NASCAR president Steve Phelps says they should have used the word "alleged" in the initial statement Sunday night.

But he says the noose was real, and they were geniunely concerned for Bubba Wallace. He said it was the only rope in the garage fashioned that way.

— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) June 25, 2020

NASCAR President Steve Phelps said he takes responsibility for the tone used in the original news release. They felt a driver was threatened.

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 25, 2020

Phelps also revealed that out of almost 1,700 garage stalls, there were only 11 of them that had pulldown ropes. The only one tied in a “noose” style was in Bubba Wallace’s garage:

NASCAR president Steve Phelps says NASCAR conducted a "thorough sweep of all 29 tracks where they race, and 1684 garage stalls, they found only 11 total ropes that had a pulldown rope tied in a knot, and just one noose: The one in Bubba Wallace garage."

— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) June 25, 2020

Pockrass also noted that it was unclear who tied the rope like a noose back in October 2019:

NASCAR says of 1684 garage stalls, only 11 have pulled-down tie rope with a knot & only Wallace's stall was a noose …. NASCAR also confirms that the noose wasn't tied like that in the garage stall at the start of the October 2019 race weekend, that it happened during weekend.

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 25, 2020

For as much as it may pain conspiracy theorists and thinly veiled racists, it seems like a series of unfortunate events that led to Bubba Wallace’s team thinking there was a threatening noose found in their garage. I’d still say the fact that this was even in the realm of believability is the bigger issue, but that’s no fault of NASCAR’s. They handled it as best they can, protected their guy Bubba Wallace and sent a strong message with all of the above. Even 0.06% of stalls having a historic symbol of racism is too many stalls. Now they know that.

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