RALEIGH, N.C. _ The North Carolina racetrack owner that made national news when he advertised the sale of "Bubba Rope" after a noose was found in the garage of NASCAR's only top series Black driver said he has lost sponsors. He also said his family, friends, business associates and others connected with him have been harassed and threatened.
In an interview with The News & Observer on Sunday, Mike Fulp, owner of 311 Speedway in Stokes County, said the Facebook Marketplace advertisement for the rope was meant to be a joke he now regrets.
"I have got friends of color, Hispanics, African American friends, and it was just a post that was supposed to have been a joke, you know joking, and it backfired," Fulp, 55, said.
Fulp, who has owned the half-mile race track in Pine Hall since 2010, posted the advertisement Wednesday on Facebook Marketplace that said "Buy your Bubba Rope today for only $9.99 each, they come with a lifetime warranty and work great," the Associated Press reported.
The advertisement was posted after a noose was found on June 21 in the Talladega Superspeedway garage of Bubba Wallace, NASCAR Cup Series' only Black driver. A federal investigation determined the rope had been in the garage for months. The situation followed NASCAR's ban on Confederate flags at its events at Wallace's urging.
"I am sorry for what I did. I will not voice my opinion (in) any way, any shape or form," Fulp said. "I am leaving social media. I am not a racist."
Fulp's rope post, which was taken down Thursday, was criticized by a spokesman for Gov. Roy Cooper, Rockingham Now reported.
"This incident of racism is horrific and shameful," Ford Porter, Cooper's communications manager, told Rockingham Now. "North Carolina is better than this."
In the 45-minute conversation with The News & Observer on Sunday, Fulp jumped from topic to topic, expressing dismay at the response he says has been directed toward him and associates.
"I have been thinking about it all night," he said. "I don't want to be hated by anybody. Black or white, Hispanic. I don't want nobody to hate me."
The rope advertisement surfaced the same week Fulp had planned a "heritage night" encouraging people to buy Confederate flags and caps at the speedway and wrote in another post that anyone who kneels during the national anthem would be escorted out. In recent years, some athletes have been kneeling during the anthem as a way to silently protest police brutality against Black people.
People who were upset by Fulp's advertisement, uncovered older racist comments, including one where he wrote, "We've really been bad people. I think we should give them a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, 2 watermelons and a plane ride back to Africa."
Fulp told the N&O he wrote that post about five years ago in response to looting and riot incidents.
"If they want to destroy all that America has worked hard for," he said.
Earlier this month, 311 Speedway called for a protest over Cooper's mass gathering size limits during the coronavirus pandemic, but the crowd never materialized.
Fulp said the backlash from the "Bubba Rope" advertisement has been harsh. About eight of the 15 business that have sponsored him over the years have said they no longer want to be associated with his business, he said.
Fulp took down the sponsor advertising that surrounded the winner's circle at the speedway because those businesses were targeted by dissenters.
A concrete company and a driver series ended their partnership with the speedway, the Winston-Salem Journal reported Friday. The Carolina Sprint Tour wrote on its Facebook page that it will withdraw its events from the speedway for the rest of the year.
"We do not condone nor support the comments and posts that have been made the past week," the post said. "We will not put our sponsors, IMCA Racing, series, drivers, teams, owners, fans or families in a negative light such as what's happened recently."
The 311 Speedway website had been taken down as of Sunday evening.
People harassed the speedway's racers and their sponsors, Fulp said, along with his family, parents and girlfriend.
"They looked at my friends list (on Facebook) and attacked all my friends," he said.
Fulp decided to close the speedway Saturday night and says he doesn't know when it will reopen.
"I haven't really thought about it," he said. "I might just close indefinitely."
Fulp defended the speedway's heritage night and selling memorabilia with Confederate symbols.
Heritage night is "the South, it is the people who live in this community," who all get along, he said.
Throughout the conversation with The News & Observer, Fulp kept mentioning a conversation he had with a Black girl, around the age of his granddaughter, at a peaceful protest outside the speedway Saturday night. At one point in the conversation with The N&O he started to cry.
A little girl grabbed his hand and said he had been hated the last few days, Fulp said.
"She said, 'I don't hate you," he said. "I looked at her, and said 'I don't hate you either.'"
Then he said she told Fulp she has woken up every day of her life being hated.
"It hurt me so bad," he said.
When asked by The N&O if the moment changed his thinking on heritage night and other comments, he said he would run a business and stand firm on what he believes.
"I don't believe in slavery," he said, then described the Democratic Party as the Ku Klux Klan.
