NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace is keeping his focus on social change after someone allegedly put a noose inside his garage stall at the Tallageda Motor Speedway in Alabama.
Wallace joined “The View” on Tuesday and explained he’s already spoken to the FBI, amid online rumors that the noose found earlier this week by a team member was fake and staged.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, a Facebook post contained what looked like a screenshot of a news story claiming a “serpentine belt was confused for a noose” and that NASCAR’s “immediate investigation … determined Bubba Wallace had mistaken a 26″ serpentine automotive belt for a noose.’”
The person who posted the image wrote, “What a moron! Can’t drive and don’t even know what a serpentine belt is. Get everybody all stirred up over your stupidity AGAIN!!!!”
As NASCAR had already announced, Wallace did not discover the noose, which was found by a member of his crew. The faked screenshot contains no information about where it came from. The post was later removed by Facebook, according to Politifact.
“It offends me that people would go to those measures but again, I’m not shocked,” Wallace said during the Tuesday interview. “People are entitled to their own opinions to make them feel good and help them sleep at night.”
“It’s simple-minded people like that, the ones that are afraid of change…they use everything in their power to defend what they stand up for.”
Wallace recently pushed NASCAR to ban the confederate flag at NASCAR venues. The flag restriction apparently angered some fans; they drove by the main entrance of the Talladega track in Alabama while a plane overhead pulled a banner that read, “Defund NASCAR.”
“No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. It starts with Confederate flags,” Wallace previously said, according to CNN. “Get them out of here. They have no place for them.”
NASCAR announced that the person responsible for the noose will be banned from its venues for life.
Meanwhile, in Alabama Monday afternoon, NASCAR and its drivers were behind Wallace prior to a race. Crews walked the pit road to push Wallace and his car to the front of the line. Wallace climbed out of his car in tears.
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[Feature Photo: Bubba Wallace via AP/Wilfredo Lee]
