Dear Bubba Wallace,
It has come to my understanding earlier today that the “noose” that has been found in the garage stall of your No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway has been proven to be a false alarm, a misunderstanding caused by a series of unfortunate coincidences that began last October, when the very garage stall that the No. 43 team received this past weekend – then occupied by Paul Menard and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team – had the very same way of knot that ended up being the main focus of this case.
Personally, I can understand why NASCAR took upon this issue seriously. This event happened approximately two weeks after you started to speak up on the racism issues in the United States, a situation that quite frankly is the biggest racial tension in the country that I have seen in my lifetime.
You also have successfully advocated the sport to finally ban the Confederate flag and bravely ran a Black Lives Matter scheme at Martinsville, the race where you secured your best finish at the legendary paperclip in the Cup Series yet.
Frankly, the stuffs that NASCAR have done in the last few weeks – from the banning of the Confederate flag, to the allowing of kneeling peaceful protests during the pre-race ceremony if one so wishes to do so, to announcing their participation in You Can Play’s charity event – would be unthinkable without the advocations that you have done to not just NASCAR, but to the world.
Given the circumstances that happened, I can understand why the person who first spotted the rope formation mistakenly thought of it as a noose.
First, there’s a slim chance that anyone not working with the Wood Brothers Racing team – and perhaps the Team Penske team by extension – will know that the very rope formation exists at Garage Stall No. 4 last October. Thus, it’s very likely that the person who reported the situation ends up mistakenly thinking that it’s a noose, not knowing that the formation had already existed last October.
Second, there’s the fact that each team was assigned a garage stall randomly and while team alliances could affect how teams receive their garage stall, from NASCAR’s statement Garage Stall No. 4 is the only garage stall where that rope formation exists.
I personally don’t know how teams got assigned their garage stalls come race day, but whatever happened with the way NASCAR chooses the garage stall assignments, it is very unfortunate that the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team was randomly drawn into this very stall last weekend.
Third and the most important thing to know is that the sport understands Wallace always needs to be safely protected given how much of the rabid part of the fanbase has spoken up against yourself after recent events.
The increased awareness of things that can lead to potential racist implications, combined with the heat of the current political climate there and how NASCAR stated that no other garage has this very rope formation, resulted in the series of unfortunate coincidences that led to what we have right now.
What is sure though, is that what happened today should not diminish the fact that a lot of the people in the sport stands up and supports you in your case to bring a better inclusivity for the future of the sport.
The sense of family that was showcased pre-race last Monday, where every single driver and every single team member pushed your car to the front of the grid prior to the pre-race ceremony as a collective sign of support that was created in less than 24 hours, is honestly one of the finest moments that I have ever seen in the sport and what happened today will not change that.
Yes, it is embarrassing for the sport that the results of the investigation turned out to be the way it is right now and yes, we shouldn’t have jumped the gun early in hindsight, but NASCAR have done things right to ensure that this is not an inside job.
I can understand that this moment can shook up the faith in NASCAR’s leadership, but given the circumstances it came as no surprise that NASCAR wants to fully investigate the situation to ensure that no one from inside the sport, be it an official from NASCAR themselves, a team member, a track official, or a safety crew member, is colluding to make you feel threatened on race weeks.
With the way how media and reporting work nowadays, people are also going to expect the information of the situation to be available not only as soon as possible, but also to be transparent in their findings.
Personally, NASCAR have done a fantastic job to keep the people updated this situation during the investigation of this case and I’m hoping that this will remain more or less to be the same, although I do understand if NASCAR don’t want to jump the gun early in similar future cases to prevent things like this to happen.
It’s unfortunate that you had to take the brunt of this from “fans” that have proved themselves to be racists, conspiracy theorists, and quite frankly almost completely irredeemable because of their behavior in their reactions to this situation, but it is my job as part of the silent majority of the sport’s fanbase to support your acts and views to ensure that NASCAR will be known as a sport that is more inclusive to not just the minorities, but to everyone in the world than it has ever been in the future.
Thank you for reading this,
Reza Maulana
World of EuroNASCAR