NASCAR vows to continue investigation into noose at Talladega after FBI closes its case
By: Michelle R. Martinelli, USA TODAY; published on MSN
NASCAR vows to milk this bit of publicity for all the free advertising they can get. We don't even know if there was a noose and the click-bait media isn't going to tell us.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The FBI announced Tuesday afternoon its investigators concluded that the noose found in Bubba Wallace and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team's garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday was not a federal crime. Its investigation determined that the noose had been in the garage stall since at least October 2019, when the NASCAR Cup Series last race at the Alabama track prior to Monday's GEICO 500.
On a conference call with reporters Tuesday evening, NASCAR president Steve Phelps said the FBI "definitively" determining someone did not commit a hate crime against Wallace was "the best result we could hope for." But he also said the governing body is continuing its own investigation to figure out how and why a rope in the garage was made into a noose.
"Everyone's belief was that someone was attacking a member of our family," Phelps said. "It turned out that that was not the case, but at the time, that's what our industry thought. ...
"We are continuing our portion of the investigation to try to determine why there was a rope fashioned into a noose, which obviously happened sometime last October or before."
NASCAR announced Sunday night that the noose was discovered in the No. 43 team's stall at Talladega. It launched its own investigation and informed law enforcement.
A crew member from the No. 43 team walked into the garage Sunday and found the noose, took it to his crew chief, Jerry Baxter, who then took it to NASCAR Cup Series managing director Jay Fabian, Phelps said.
A joint statement from U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp, Jr. read, in part:
"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."
Wood Brothers Racing last used the No. 4 garage at the Talladega playoff race in October. The team also released a statement Tuesday immediately following the FBI's, saying one of its employees recalled Monday "seeing a tied handle in the garage pull-down rope from last fall."
"Just like the rest of the NASCAR garage, we were shocked and appalled to learn of the existence of the rope fashioned like a noose," the Wood Brothers Racing statement read. "We immediately alerted NASCAR and have assisted in the investigation in every way possible."
Phelps explained how NASCAR cooperated with the FBI's investigation, including providing team roster information and photo and video evidence.
"To be clear, we would do this again," Phelps said about NASCAR's own investigation and getting law enforcement involved. "The evidence that we had, it was clear we needed to look into this. ...
"The 43 team had nothing to do with this. The evidence is very clear that the noose in that was in that garage had been in the garage previously."
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A lanyard knot isn't a noose, even though it can look like one. Of course, the news media doesn't care about the facts since they are only selling click-bait.
Click, click, click, click. Are you not outraged?
Lanyard Knots
And you posted it here... Just to bitch about it. Nice!
And here you are to comment on it. Nice!
NASCAR is far smarter than the FBI./S
They need to keep this story going for as long as possible. It is the only thing keeping their "sport" relevant in the news.
Hopefully they gain one triggered snowflake liberal fan for every ten fans they lost with this charade.
I don't know. The baseball strike in 94/95 did more to make NASCAR popular than any other single thing. A lot of people left baseball and picked up racing. Same could happen this year or next when the CBA is up.
I see another strike coming and this one might be a death knell to baseball as we know it today. The last one took nearly a decade to recover from. They might not recover at all from this one if they strike. Which i think they will.
I use Hangman/Uni-Knot a few times a year. Should I stop for PC's sake ?
I'd really hate to loose something that actually "Works" when I need it to work !
Bubba overreacted
The media did to
Turk 182