Call it NOOSECAR.
That’s the new name for NASCAR now that the FBI has exposed another noose hoax, the latest “noose” having been found in driver Bubba Wallace’s garage at Talladega Superspeedway.
A full squadron of G-Men didn’t need much time to figure out what the noose really was: a garage door pull that was there since last year.
But that didn’t stop Wallace, now a NASCAR star despite a lackluster career, from insisting to CNN talker Don Lemon that a noose was indeed what Wallace found.
The hoax occurred two weeks after Wallace ordered NASCAR to ban Confederate flags at its events, in keeping with the mad rush to destroy anything and everything associated with the South and the Confederacy.
Who Found It
The hoax began this weeked at Talladega’s Geico 500. News reports don’t make clear who found the noose, but Wallace was clear that his eyes did indeed fall upon the offending piece of rope.
“Today’s despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism,” he said.
NASCAR vowed to find and punish the “noose” maker and drive them out of racing business:
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.
Then the FBI stepped in.
Hanging a “noose” is a hate crime, and nothing less than the full power of the agency that brought down lesser threats such as John Dillinger, the Mafia, KGB spies, and Islamic terrorists could bring the malefactor to justice.
The agency’s gumshoes went to work. They left no oil can unturned.
And like so many other noose hoaxes, including a “noose” in a park in Oakland that turned out to be an exercise rope, this one soon collapsed.
“On Monday, fifteen FBI special agents conducted numerous interviews regarding the situation at Talladega Superspeedway,” the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama announced. “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.”
Wallace: I Saw A Noose!
Appearing on Lemon’s program, Wallace insisted that the garage door pull was indeed a noose.
“I’ve been racing all my life. We’ve raced out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pulls like that,” Wallace began. “So people that want to call it a garage pull and put out old videos and photos of knots being as their evidence, go ahead, but from the evidence that we have, that I have, it’s a straight-up noose”:
The FBI has stated it was a noose over and over again. NASCAR leadership has stated that it was a noose. I can confirm that I actually got evidence of what was hanging in my garage, over my car, around my picker guys, to confirm that it was a noose and never seen anything like that.
“What are you saying here?” asked Lemon, who announced last week that his hydrangeas told him all whites are racist.
“It was a noose,” Wallace replied. “It was a noose … 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 am saying. It is a noose.”
Such was Wallace’s trauma that NASCAR drivers surrounded Wallace’s car “in solidarity” before the race. Driver Cory LaJoie pushed Wallace across the finish line when he ran out of gas.
Wallace is winless in 175 NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series races.
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
