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'Apologise': President Donald Trump lashes out at NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace over noose protest

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Jul 06, 2020, 09:34 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Last month, NASCAR released a statement that a noose was found in the garage stall of black driver Bubba Wallace at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, and they have launched a probe of the "heinous" act. 

US President Donald Trump lashed out on NASCAR's only black driver Bubba Wallace and has urged him to apologise after FBI denied any hate crime against the racer. 

Last month, NASCAR released a statement that a noose was found in the garage stall of black driver Bubba Wallace at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, and they have launched a probe of the "heinous" act. The noose has been a symbol of lynchings in the American South. 

Wallace took to Twitter to condemn this "despicable act of racism" against him. He wrote: "The despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism."

Incident brought the NASCAR community together and many of them rallied around Wallace. NASCAR champions Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney pushed Wallace's vehicle on track as he steered it to the front of the pit road. The entire 40-driver field and all their crew members followed.

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"Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX?" Trump said on Twitter.

Trump added in his tweet that the ban and the noose controversy had "caused lowest ratings EVER!"

The FBI has concluded the investigation on Tuesday on the noose found in the garage stalls of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace and said that the rope was no evidence of racist hate crime but an object that had been there for months.

NASCAR released a statement which said: "The FBI has completed its investigation at Talladega Superspeedway and determined that Bubba Wallace was not the target of a hate crime."