TALLADEGA, Ala. (WIAT) — After another weather delay, the GEICO 500 finally has a winner. But today, the focus is on Bubba Wallace, who came in 14th.
At the beginning of the race, Wallace had his NASCAR family behind him, pushing his car to the front of the speedway in a show of support. On Sunday, a noose was found in Wallace’s garage stall. As Wallace exited his vehicle to joined the crowd of drivers and crew members behind him, he buckled over in tears, overwhelmed with support.
After the race, Wallace said he isn’t going to let the person that left a noose in his garage win.
“The sport is changing, the deal that happened yesterday, sorry I’m not wearing my mask. But I wanted to show whoever it was, you’re not going to take away my smile and I’m going to keep on going,” said Wallace.
“We want to stand with our friend. We stand with Bubba. That’s what took place last night and through this morning… The teams wanted to get involved as well, and you saw the support, pretty amazing,” said Jimmie Johnson.
The Attorney General and FBI are now investigating the noose found in Wallance’s garage. This comes just one week after NASCAR announced it’s confederate flag ban. Talladega Mayor Timothy Ragland said he has offered up the city’s resources to aid in the investigation. “It goes to show, a lot of people in NASCAR stand against those acts of racism and bigotry. To see all the other teams walking in solidarity with Bubba, it was amazing.”
NASCAR President Steve Phelps said whoever left the noose will be banned from NASCAR for life. NASCAR released a statement saying there are security cameras in the garages but have not given any more information on if anything was caught on those cameras.
