On Monday, NASCAR authorities said that the FBI is investigating a noose found in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace on Talladega Superspeedway.
The governor of Alabama has condemned the act against Wallace. Bubba Wallace is NASCAR's only full-time Black driver, he was successful to push NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its venues two weeks ago. However, plans for restricting the flag has not been outlined yet.
NASCAR released a statement, which read: "Late this afternoon, NASCAR was made aware that a noose was found in the garage stall of the 43 teams. We are angry and outraged, and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act."
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."
pic.twitter.com/koL655AJB9 — Bubba Wallace (@BubbaWallace) June 22, 2020
Incident brought the NASCAR community together and many of them rallied around Wallace on Monday. 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.
Together.#IStandWithBubba pic.twitter.com/achL5H70Ng — NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 22, 2020
As the car came to a halt teary-eyed Wallace climbed out, sat on the window ledge.
"The news has disturbed us all and of course we want justice and know who and why," said seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. "And we want to stand with our friend."