NASCAR Releases Photo of Noose Found in Bubba Wallace's Talladega Garage

NASCAR released a photo Thursday of the garage pull rope that had been tied into a noose in a garage at Talladega Superspeedway.

The organization announced Monday it was investigating the noose, which was found in the garage belonging to Bubba Wallace and his crew. NASCAR followed up to say the FBI had looked into the matter and that camera footage dated the rope back to at least last October, well before Wallace was assigned the garage.

According to The Athletic's Jeff Gluck, NASCAR president Steve Phelps said Wallace's garage was the only one in which the garage rope was tied in that style.

"Anyone who would suggest this was a hoax, I find personally offensive," Phelps said, per ESPN's Marty Smith. "I don't know how people think that way."

The initial concern was that somebody was retaliating against Wallace, NASCAR's only Black full-time driver, for his recent social activism. He has become outspoken in the wake of the ongoing protests across the country supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and demanding reforms to address systemic racism.

Wallace told CNN's Don Lemonon June 8 he thought NASCAR should take the step of banning the Confederate flag from all of its events. Two days later, NASCAR did just that.

Some developed conspiracy theories to accuse Wallace of staging the whole incident.

"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 said on The View.

Gluck noted the series of events that preceded the conclusion of the FBI's investigation. NASCAR officials were the first to discover the rope and alerted Wallace. He had been operating on the information provided to him.

During an appearance Tuesday on CNN Tonight, Wallace defended the seriousness with which the matter was handled because he had never seen a similar garage pull tied like a noose:

Addressing the investigation Thursday, Phelps told reporters he "take[s] full responsibility" and that at the time " we felt one of our drivers had been threatened."