Donald Trump tweeted about Bubba Wallace and the noose found at Talladega last month.
President Donald Trump sent out a tweet Monday morning asking if Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., the only Black driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, has apologized after a noose was found June 21 in the Talladega Superspeedway garage stall belonging to Wallace and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team.
Trump referred to the incident as a “HOAX” in the tweet.
Calling it a hoax is a lie — one made by a president who has a long history of lying — and implying Wallace had something to do with it is malicious, especially considering Wallace did not find the noose. Previously, NASCAR president Steve Phelps said he’s personally offended by those arguing the incident was staged.
It wasn’t a staged incident nor a hoax, according to the FBI’s investigation. The noose had been hanging in that garage stall since October 2019, and law enforcement determined no federal crime was committed. In the FBI and Justice Department’s joint statement about the matter, they used the word “noose” four times and did not describe it as a garage door pull.
Naturally, facts and a statement from federal law enforcement didn’t stop the president from publicly impugning Wallace’s character. So let’s break down the president’s disparaging tweet.
What could Wallace possibly have to apologize for? Wallace didn’t find the noose, and he was first told about its discovery by Phelps. Wallace reacted to information he was given, he didn’t do anything wrong, and he owes no one an apology.
Phelps defended Wallace and said in June that the 26-year-old driver “has done nothing but represent this sport with courage, class and dignity,” and “it is offensive seeing anyone suggest otherwise.”
Drivers and crew members stood together with Wallace and his team on pit road before the rain-delayed GEICO 500 on June 22. Wallace and his fellow drivers said they were proud of that gesture and relieved the FBI said a hate crime was not committed.
After the FBI’s conclusion, Wallace said:
“Make no mistake, though some will try, this should not detract from the show of unity we had on Monday, and the progress we’ve made as a sport to be a more welcoming environment for all.”
As for the officials, NASCAR would have been rightly criticized if had not taken the potential threat behind a noose seriously. And especially given the context of June 21 — which included Confederate flag ban protesters outside Talladega and a plane flying a banner with the banned flag above the track before the race was delayed a day — NASCAR had no choice to call law enforcement.
When NASCAR released a photo of the noose, Phelps said it “speaks volumes for why we reacted the way we did.” The NASCAR president also said on June 25:
“Upon learning of and seeing the noose, our initial reaction was to protect our driver. We’re living in a highly charged and emotional time. What we saw was a symbol of hate and was only present in one area of the garage, that of the 43 car of Bubba Wallace. …
“Given the evidence that we had, we would do the same thing. We would investigate it the same way.”
Who was sacrificing what, exactly? Sportsmanship and supporting a fellow competitor is never a bad thing, especially when it is suspected that competitor was a victim of a hate crime. No one sacrificed anything. They united to show that hate and racism will no longer be tolerated in the sport.
Neither the noose itself nor the incident overall was a hoax or staged, and, as Phelps previously said, “For those who would think this is staged, I don’t even know where to go with that frankly.”
About NASCAR’s own investigation, Phelps also said:
“NASCAR conducted a thorough sweep of all the garage areas across the tracks that we race. So across those 29 tracks and 1,684 garage stalls, we found only 11 total that had a pull-down rope tied in a knot. And only one noose: The one discovered on Sunday in Bubba Wallace’s garage.”
It was a noose, and the discovery of it appropriately led to multiple investigations.
The president is likely talking about NASCAR’s Confederate flag ban, which we’re inferring he’s against based on this sentence.
The Confederate flag is, in no uncertain terms, a symbol of racism, slavery and white supremacy, and it’s actually appalling NASCAR hadn’t banned it until June 10, 2020. Wallace has been a leader in the garage in the last few weeks against racism and hate, and he pushed for NASCAR to ban the flag.
NASCAR is working to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment, and, although it sometimes contradicts that message, that ongoing effort is a huge positive for the sport.
Data actually show Wallace’s and the governing body’s anti-racism efforts haven’t kept people from watching, despite NASCAR’s larger struggles to maintain its audience while ratings and attendance have been in decline over the last several years.
Current ratings overall are not down, according to FOX Sports, which broadcasts one half of the NASCAR Cup Series season while NBC broadcasts the other. There are, however, plenty of possible factors contributing to a recent increase compared with this time last year, including few professional sports competing right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
FOX Sports’ executive vice president of research, league operations and strategy, Mike Mulvihill, tweeted Monday morning:
And this is what he had to say following NASCAR’s race at Martinsville Speedway on June 10, the day the Confederate flag was banned and when Wallace ran a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme:
Additionally, the Talladega race two weeks ago was the most-watched Monday race since 2014, excluding the Daytona 500, according to Sports Media Watch. And the NASCAR-IndyCar Series doubleheader this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway led to a bump in ratings as well, according to NBC.
In less than 280 characters on Twitter, Trump managed to tweet multiple lies, smear Wallace and stand against NASCAR’s Confederate flag ban.
UPDATE: NBC said viewership for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was up 46 percent compared with the 2019 Indy race, which was held in September on the same day as most NFL Week 1 games. Compared with NASCAR’s 2019 race on the same weekend in July at Daytona International Speedway, NBC said viewership was up 32 percent.
