‘The noose was real.’ NASCAR details its investigation of Bubba Wallace’s garage stall

NASCAR president Steve Phelps spoke with the media Thursday after the sanctioning body completed its investigation into the door pull shaped like a noose found Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in the garage stall assigned to Bubba Wallace.

NASCAR released a photo of the noose shortly before Phelps spoke.

“As you can see from the photo, the noose was real,” Phelps said. “As was our concern for Bubba.”

While Phelps previously said he would not change anything about how NASCAR handled the investigation, he added Thursday that, “In hindsight, we should have — I should have — used the word ‘alleged’ in our statement.”

“Upon learning of and seeing the noose, our initial reaction was to protect our driver,” Phelps said. “We’re living in a highly charged and emotional time. What we saw was a symbol of hate, and was only present in one area of the garage, that of the 43 car of Bubba Wallace.”

NASCAR said it had officials sweep all of its garages across the country as part of the investigation, and found that only 11 of 1,684 stalls had pull-down ropes tied in a knot, and only one stall — Wallace’s — had the rope fashioned like a noose.

Phelps also revealed further details of the investigation, including a timeline of when events occurred and what the sport will change going forward.

Phelps said that after the morning car inspection and prior to the race’s 3 p.m. scheduled start time Sunday, a member of Wallace’s team noticed the noose shape. Phelps said the sanctioning body received the report approximately an hour and a half later, and NASCAR security did a sweep of all 40 garage stalls to see if any other pull ropes were tied similarly, finding only the one in Wallace’s garage tied like a noose.

That evening, NASCAR released the following statement:

“Late this afternoon, NASCAR was made aware that a noose was found in the garage stall of the 43 team. We are angry and outraged, and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act. We have launched an immediate investigation, and will do everything we can to identify the person(s) responsible and eliminate them from the sport. As we have stated unequivocally, there is no place for racism in NASCAR, and this act only strengthens our resolve to make the sport open and welcoming to all.”

“We thought it was important to put out a statement as quickly as we could,” Phelps said. He later added that, “Some feel that the phrasing or words used were not right.”

“That comes with the territory,” he continued. “And I will take full responsibility for that and for the emotion that was attached to it. Based on the evidence we had, we felt that one of our drivers had been threatened — a driver who had been extremely courageous in recent words and actions.”

Phelps was referring to the sport embracing the fight against racial injustice amid nationwide protests and its recent ban of the Confederate flag at NASCAR events, a decision sparked by Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series.

“Were there heightened emotions (with) what has gone on over the past two and a half weeks in our country and then in our sport? I think, absolutely, yeah, it was emotionally charged for a lot of people,” Phelps said.

Phelps said the Birmingham (Ala.) branch of the FBI reached out to NASCAR on Monday morning and arrived with 15 field agents to begin their investigation at the track. Phelps said NASCAR provided the FBI with the list of personnel who had access to the garage, as well as video and images taken from that weekend and the 2019 fall race weekend. He also said Talladega Superspeedway provided the FBI with a list of events that had taken place since October of 2019, which was when the new Cup garage opened.

On Tuesday, the FBI determined the incident was not a hate crime, as the knot shaped as a noose had been in that garage stall since October. Phelps said the Wood Brothers Racing team, the last team to use that stall, aided in the investigation. The team released a statement Tuesday saying that one of its employees recalled seeing the knot last fall and alerted the team on Monday, and the team then alerted NASCAR.

“We did have a lot of conversations as part of our investigation with the Wood Brothers, as we did with others in the industry,” Phelps said. “And we could not determine whether it was someone on their team or someone else, but extensive conversations there.

“We have no idea what the intent was at all. Whether there was any malice in it or whether it was just fashioned as a noose for a pulley.”

Phelps said NASCAR’s investigation further determined the knot was not in place when the October 2019 Talladega race weekend began, but was created at some point during that weekend. However, given that timing and the garage access policies and procedures, Phelps said NASCAR was unable to determine with any certainty who tied the rope and why.

“We know it brings up another question,” Phelps said. “How could it have gone unnoticed by so many people in October of 2019 and for the morning of June 21, 2020? Our ultimate conclusion for this investigation is to ensure that this never happens again, that no one walks by a noose without recognizing the potential damage it can do.”

Phelps said that NASCAR will start conducting sweeps of all garages “to ensure nothing like this happens again.”

He also said NASCAR is installing additional cameras in the garage areas and will make “any changes necessary” to its code of conduct, as well as mandate sensitivity and unconscious bias training for all of its members.

Phelps twice reiterated that Wallace had nothing to do with the incident.

“I want to thank Bubba Wallace and everyone at Richard Petty Motorsports,” Phelps ended the call. “Specifically, thank Bubba for his leadership over this past three weeks. Bubba has done nothing but represent this sport with courage, class and dignity.

“And he stood tall for what he believes in, and we all need to stand with him. I know I’m going to.”