FBI: No hate crime indicated, doubleheader at Pocono

Image
  • Bubba Wallace Twitter
    Bubba Wallace Twitter
Body

 When you mention the FBI is investigating it usually isn’t a good thing, but in NASCAR’s situation it was good. The FBI issued a statement saying there was no hate crime and that the door pull in question had been in place for a long time.
    If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you must live under a rock. After the race was postponed on Sunday, a Bubba Wallace crewmember notified NASCAR of a noose hanging in the garage space of the #43 car.
    NASCAR immediately contacted the FBI who came in to investigate the incident. The racing world quickly came together and bonded around Wallace in support as the media became more aware of the situation.
    The apparent noose drew a lot of attention from the media as NASCAR and others begin to speak out in support of Bubba and penalties of a lifetime ban for the guilty party when found.
    Before the race  all the drivers, pit crews, and garage personel pushed Bubba’s car down pit road as a sign of solidarity. At the end car owner Richard Petty, his first time out of quarintine since the start of the pandemic, greeted his driver. It was an emotional scene to witness as NASCAR continues to lead the way in promoting unity and diversity in the sport.
    During the race, Bubba did make it up to fourth place before falling out of the draft and falling back. At the end of the race, he ran out of fuel on the track and #32 Corey Lajoie slowed down and pushed him into the pits for fuel so he could finish the race in 14th place.
    The whole Bubba incident is going to overshadow what was an exciting end to the race. A green white checker shot out with four cars fighting to cross the line first as cars behind them were spinning and crashing into the wall. NASCAR let the race finish instead of throwing a yellow flag.
    #12 Ryan Blaney and #10 Aric Almirola were door to door in the lead when Blaney moved up touching Almirola sending him into a spin sliding backwards across the finish line and a third place finish. #47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took advantage of the contact and ended up side by side with Blaney with Blaney winning by half a bumper. #11 Denny Hamlin who pitted on the last caution sped back through the field to finish fourth.
    Blaney becomes the first driver with back-to- back Talladega wins in quite a while.  
    The situation with Bubba Wallace has created another rift in the fan base as many rushed to support Wallace while others held off without rushing to judgment. This brought about many fans being called racists as they expressed their opinion. Once the FBI declared there was no crime, many started comparing it to the Jussie Smollett case.
    First it should be noted there is no comparison between the two when looking at the facts as they are reported now. Bubba never saw the rope in question as one of the social distancing rules put in place by NASCAR at this time does not allow drivers in the garage area; however, Bubba was adamant  during an interview with CNN on Tuesday night commenting on the pictures he seen, “It was a noose.” Wednesday, Bubba took a step back on his comments saying, “It’s been an emotional few days... I think we’ll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been.”
    Second, the majority of this controversy comes down squarely on the shoulders of NASCAR who rushed this situation into the media before allowing the investigation to develop. NASCAR released their findings and a picture of the rope on Thursday and said, “NASCAR looked at 1,684 garage stalls across all 29 tracks. Only 11 had a tied pull downs. Only one had a noose, the stall that the #43 team was assigned to on Sunday.” Photographic evidence shows the noose hanging on the door at the 2019 race.
    In the ARCA series, no team is hotter in racing than Venturini Motorsports. At Talladega, #15 Drew Dollar narrowly edged out his teammate #20 Ryan Repko for the win. The team has had three different winners so far this season.
    NASCAR had a busy weekend at the tricky triangle with a full schedule that started with an ARCA race on Friday night, two races Saturday and two races Sunday.
 Ty Gibbs, grandson of Cup owner and former Washington Redskins coach, picked up his first win on Friday night.
    The weather postponed the truck race to Sunday, setting up a historic day as it was the first time NASCAR ran three races at the same track on the same day.
    The Saturday Cup race was a tough one for most teams. No practice session was scheduled as teams rolled the cars off the truck to the starting grid. The tunnel turn would end up sending more than one driver spinning throughout the day. Kyle Busch, who is a systematic driver, complained about the lack of practice going in and more-or-less commented Saturday was just to get ready for the race on Sunday.
    On Saturday, Kevin Harvick finished just in front of Denny Hamlin by .0761 seconds to win the Pocono Organics 325. Aric Almirola finished third and has really been showing improvement for Stewart-Haas Racing.
    Sunday, the two decided to swap spots as Denny Hamlin won the Pocono 350 and Harvick finished second. While Hamlin denied Harvick the weekend sweep, Ryan Blaney was kind enough to help Kyle Busch into the wall. The weather affected the events again this weekend with rain and lightning delays that pushed the end of the race close to darkness. The Stewart-Haas team placed all three cars in the top ten for the day.
    Cup driver #47 Ricky Stenhouse and Xfinity driver #44 Tommy Joe Martins both native Mississippians have removed the state flag from their cars and firesuits due to the Confederate flag being part of the state flag. Stenhouse said he did this after talking with Bubba Wallace and getting his viewpoint on the flag.
    Kentucky native Ben Rhodes is currently in fourth place in the Ganders Outdoor Truck Series. So far this season in five races he has three top ten finishes. He qualified sixth for the Pocono race and finished 5th in the Organics 150 avoiding wrecks and spinouts that dominated the early stages of the race.
     Hall of Fame driver Dale Jarrett has now fully recovered from his bout with Covid-19 and will be returning to his broadcast role at NBC.