This weekend NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, the only black driver in the top circuit, found a noose in his restricted garage at Talladega Superspeedway.
This comes after Wallace showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and pushed for Confederate flags to be banned at all NASCAR races.
Saying he was ‘incredibly saddened’ by the ‘despicable act of racism and hatred,’ Bubba tweeted that it ‘serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism’.
‘We are angry and outraged, and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act,’ said NASCAR in a statement. ‘As we have stated unequivocally, there is no place for racism in NASCAR, and this act only strengthens our resolve to make the sport open and welcoming to all.’
‘God help us,’ NASCAR driver Michael McDowell tweeted afterword: ‘The level of evil it takes to do something like this is disgusting. This is enraging and heartbreaking all at the same time.’
The FBI has now been called in to investigate.