President Donald Trump asked NASCAR Cup driver Bubba Wallace in a Monday morning tweet if he has apologized to NASCAR drivers and officials.
Trump was referring to the support Wallace received prior to the June 22 race at Talladega Superspeedway, one day after Wallace’s team had found what appeared to be a noose hanging in Wallace’s No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports garage stall. Wallace is NASCAR’s lone Black driver.
FBI agents later determined that the rope was actually a garage pulldown rope, which had been in that stall during the Talladega race this past October.
Trump called the incident a ‘HOAX.’ Trump also called out NASCAR for its ban on the Confederate flag at all NASCAR facilities, which was implemented earlier this spring. Here is the complete Tweet below.
Wallace has been outspoken since the death of George Floyd. He asked NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag just days prior to NASCAR officials banning it . He also drove a Black Lives Matter paint scheme at the Martinsville race.
Richard Petty Motorsports released a statement from owner Andrew Murstein:
It appeared that Trump has enjoyed a close relationship with the sanctioning body. He served as NASCAR’s grand marshal at the season-opening Daytona 500 this past February.
Michael Mulvihill of Fox Sports responded to Trump’s tweet with a tweet of his own regarding Trump’s claim that viewership had dropped.
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