ATLANTA _ Federal officials said Tuesday that the noose found this weekend in the Alabama garage stall of NASCAR's only full-time Black driver was present last year, months before Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. was assigned the garage at the Talladega Superspeedway.
"After a thorough review of the facts and evidence surrounding this event, we have concluded that no federal crime was committed," said Jay E. Town, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, and Johnnie Sharp Jr., head of the FBI's office in Birmingham, Ala., in a statement.
NASCAR officials expressed relief Tuesday that "Wallace was not the target of a hate crime."
Photographic evidence, they said in a statement, showed that a "garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose" had been positioned in the garage since as early as last fall.
"We appreciate the FBI's quick and thorough investigation and are thankful to learn that this was not an intentional, racist act against Bubba," NASCAR said on Twitter. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all who love racing."
Video footage confirmed by NASCAR showed the noose found in garage No. 4 was present there as early as last October, Town and Sharp said.
"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," they said.
The discovery of the noose in Wallace's garage stall Sunday roiled the stock car racing world, coming days after Wallace had driven a car decked out in Black Lives Matter livery and had successfully pushed for NASCAR to ban Confederate flags at its races.
Wallace, 26, denounced the hanging of the noose as a "despicable act of racism and hatred" that served as a "painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society."
"As my mother told me today, 'They are just trying to scare you,' " Wallace said in a statement on Twitter. "This will not break me, I will not give in nor will I back down. I will continue to proudly stand for what I believe in."
In the supercharged environment after George Floyd's killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis and nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, reports of a noose at a NASCAR race track in a Deep South state was widely condemned across the political spectrum.
On Monday, as more than a dozen FBI agents conducted interviews, a parade of drivers and pit crew members united in support of Wallace, walking behind him in his No. 43 car on their way to the front of the field before the NASCAR Cup Series Geico 500 race at the Talladega Superspeedway.
After his Chevrolet came to a stop, Wallace climbed out and bowed his head against his car door, sobbing.
NASCAR President Steve Phelps told reporters Monday that the organization contacted the FBI on Monday after a member of Wallace's team reported discovering the noose Sunday afternoon in Wallace's garage stall. NASCAR, he vowed, would permanently ban whoever hung the noose.
