Tuesday night, NASCAR’s only top-level black driver appeared on Don Lemon’s CNN program after the FBI found that he was not the victim of a hate crime.
“From the evidence that we have — that I have — it’s a straight-up noose,” Wallace told Lemon of the rope found in his garage stall.
The FBI concluded Tuesday that Wallace “was not the target” of a hate crime, pointing to photographic evidence that the noose found in his garage stall was a garage door pull and had been there “as early as last fall.”
Wallace, the league’s only full-time Black driver, discovered the rope hanging in his stall on Sunday before The Geico 500, which ended up getting delayed to Monday due to inclement weather. NASCAR strongly condemned the action shortly after and launched an immediate investigation with help from the state of Alabama and the FBI.
He expressed his frustration during the primetime appearance, saying, “I’m pissed. I’m mad because people are trying to test my character and the person that I am and my integrity. They’re not stealing that from me, but trying to test that and as a person that doesn’t need the fame or the hype or the media, I could care less. I give two craps about that.”
Wallace has been making other headlines recently, too: Earlier this month, he called for NASCAR to ban the confederate flag at its events. The league complied with that request.
Watch his chat with Lemon via CNN above.
