FBI declares no threat, no crime in alleged noose incident

By Jerry Jordan, Editor

One day into its investigation, the Birmingham, Ala. FBI field office determined a “noose” found in the garage stall used by Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 team at Talladega Superspeedway had been there since October 2019 and was fashioned into a loop on a garage door pull-down rope – “no federal crime was committed.”

This past Sunday, a crew member on the team noticed the rope used to lower the door in the fourth garage stall had been fashioned into a loop that resembled a noose. The crew member, according to NASCAR President Steve Phelps, notified the crew chief, who immediately notified NASCAR officials. An investigation was launched, crew members were questioned, a teleconference was held with the media and the FBI was called in.

“On Monday, fifteen FBI special agents conducted numerous interviews regarding the situation at Talladega Superspeedway,” states a release obtained from the FBI in Birmingham. “After a thorough review of the facts and evidence surrounding this event, we have concluded that no federal crime was committed. 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.

“The decision not to pursue federal charges is proper after reviewing all available facts and all applicable federal laws. We offer our thanks to NASCAR, Mr. Wallace, and everyone who cooperated with this investigation.”

Shortly after the FBI released its statement, NASCAR released its own statement and then Phelps held a teleconference. It was made clear he would not answer questions at this time and it was obvious he was being very deliberate with his wording. He indicated the investigation’s result was good for NASCAR.

“I’d like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI for their obviously very swift and thorough work,” Phelps said. “As their statement has said, they’ve concluded their investigation at Talladega Superspeedway and determined that Bubba Wallace was not the target of a hate crime. For us at NASCAR, this is the best result we could hope for. It was disturbing to hear that it was thought that one of our own had committed this heinous act. It is fantastic to hear from the FBI definitively that there was not a hate crime.”

The fallout from the FBI’s determination was swift with many fans calling it a “PR stunt.” In fact, “NASCAR” was trending on Twitter in the No.1 position Tuesday evening and four other NASCAR-related topics, “Bubba,” “Fake Noose,” “The FBI” and “Wallace” were all trending in the Top 10.

Phelps said given the same scenario, he would have made the same call to involved federal authorities and this is further proof of NASCAR’s zero-tolerance policy regarding racism. He also reassured those on the call that no one on the RPM was involved.

“The 43 team had nothing to do with this,” Phelps said. “The evidence is very clear that the noose that was in that garage had been in the garage previously.  The last race we had had there in October, that noose was present, and it was ‑‑ the fact that it was not found until a member of the 43 team came there is something that is a fact. We had not been back to the garage. It was a quick one‑day show. The crew member went back in there. He looked and saw the noose, brought it to the attention of his crew chief, who then went to the NASCAR series director Jay Fabian, and we launched this investigation.

“To be clear, we would do this again. Of the evidence that we had, it was clear that we needed to look into this.”

The incident did prove to have one positive note, and that was the entire garage rallied around Wallace. From their outcry on social media to their actions on pit road and the show of unity but pushing his car to the front of the field before the race, Phelps said it appeared as if someone was attacking the NASCAR family. He was glad that was not the case.

“Yesterday to me as a sport was one of the most important days we’ve had,” he said. “It’s one of the most kind of indelible print on my mind until the day I die, seeing the support that Bubba had from not just the drivers but all the crews, all the officials who were down in pit road, anyone who was part of that footprint. Everyone wanted to show their support for a family member of NASCAR. We are one big family …”

Phelps confirmed NASCAR would continue its own investigation and take questions from media members at a later time.