Bubba Wallace (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace does not regret issuing a statement on the incident in his garage, insisting in an interview set to air on Saturday, “It was a noose.”
“Everybody has seen the image now,” Wallace said, according to a transcript of the interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters airing Saturday night. “So, to say we would go back and do things differently, I don’t think so. Maybe word things differently, yes but I would launch an investigation. I would follow NASCAR’s judgement on it again.”
On Sunday night, NASCAR announced an investigation following the discovery of a rope in Wallace’s garage at the Talladega Superspeedway which had been tied as a noose. Wallace issued his own statement on the incident after being told of the noose. The FBI conducted an investigation, and according to NASCAR determined it to be a “garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose,” which had been in place since October 2019.
Wallace received an outpouring of support following the incident, including from NASCAR drivers and
“Let’s get it straight,” Wallace said. “ This wasn’t used as a publicity stunt on my end. I don’t need all the fame and all the media hype to create my brand and create my image. People that know me know I’m 100 percent raw and real and I just go out and give my all on the racetrack, and I’m the human being everybody else is off the race track. I put my pants on the same way.”
Wallace said that he could have been “more proactive” by seeking out a picture of the rope or “seeing it for myself in person” rather than learning about it from a NASCAR official, but added, “At the end of the day, I wouldn’t have changed anything.”