The story went all over about a “noose” being found in the garage of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, who is black.
Many decried the incident, media called it a hate crime and drivers came out in an emotional show of support for Wallace.
NASCAR shared an emotional video with a message of "family" around Bubba Wallace.
(via @NASCAR)pic.twitter.com/9haTanZWJe
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 22, 2020
The FBI was called in to investigate the incident.
The verdict? It was all a misunderstanding, that the ‘noose’ had already been there long before Wallace was assigned the garage and it was not a hate incident directed at him.
NEWS: The FBI has just released a statement about the NASCAR noose incident at Talladega, indicating it was a misunderstanding. No crime was committed. The noose was already there as early as last year. pic.twitter.com/j2MGrOvUN3
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) June 23, 2020
The Wood Brothers Racing team, which used that garage stall last year, had an employee who recalled seeing the rope tied like a noose. https://t.co/o7m2ay1roY
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) June 23, 2020
Apologies for not knowing who originally created this image, but it has been making the rounds on Twitter and turned out to be correct. You can see in the left photo the rope was in noose form — apparently as a handle — last year and then cut for evidence Sunday. pic.twitter.com/MIrtF3uqtN
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) June 23, 2020
As many pointed out, it’s apparently common on many of the NASCAR garages, to have a rope with a loop that might look like a noose to help to pull down the rolling door of the garage.
Good to hear. Again another lesson for media to wait for all the facts to come in.
Stories often turn out to be mistaken or false upon further investigation. This is similar to the story last in Oakland, California of a “noose” found in a tree and it turned out it was exercise aids that were set up by a local man to work out with.
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