NBC NASCAR announcer Rick Allen came under criticism for a comment he made during the Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Bubba Wallace won the race as it was cut short due to rain. It was his first career playoffs win. While Wallace will now remember the track due to his first Cup victory but last season was a different story here.
A garage pull rope was found in Wallace’s garage and it led to the FBI investigating the matter. The investigation led to the conclusion that no hate crime was committed. As a matter of fact, the rope was not even directed towards Wallace.
However, referencing this incident, NBC NASCAR announcer Allen said that Wallace had to deal with “racial slander in the garage” at Talladega last year. For his comments, he was criticized on Twitter by a number of users.
@NBCSports racial slander in the garage… damn 45 FBI agents investigated and found 0 Evidence of any racial slander.
— Clay Freels (@ClayFreels) October 4, 2021
@RickAllenracing's mic needed to be shut off there, holy hell. We can be happy for Bubba. But we dont need to keep pushing that he was a victim of some terrible racial slander. At least tell the entire story & say it turned out to just be handle tied into the door rope 🙄
— beep boop (@WRXLarsen) October 4, 2021
Racial slander
— Mitchell Riggs (@PaducahBazooka) October 4, 2021
@NASCARonNBC Stop with the racial slander crap! It's been disproven. Just stop if you want any credibility. Setiously, as if there isn't enough divide without you pushing a false narrative!! @NASCAR
— Tammy (@tjomac) October 4, 2021
@RickAllenracing trying re-write history saying Bubba was a victim of racial slander when investigation showed it wasn’t intentional racism nor directed at Bubba.
— Matt (@MichStMatt) October 4, 2021
@NASCARonNBC Rick Allen needs to be fired. It was not a racial slander in the garage @TALLADEGA @FBI said so.@DaleJr@JeffBurton you could have spoken up and corrected, but you didn't.
STOP pushing the racist narrative!@BubbaWallace
congrats on your victory. pic.twitter.com/YgDMwywRr0— Durk R. (@rehm9470) October 4, 2021
Made up racial slander
— Josh Killian (@nebo454) October 4, 2021
Ugg. @NASCARonNBC playing the whole “racial slander” noosegate thing re: @BubbaWallace’s likely 1st #NASCAR win. That was #fakenews. Better to note this win comes just about one month after the @WendellScott_34 family finally got the trophy for Scott’s 1964 win. THAT’S a ❤️ story
— DirigoDuke (@DirigoDuke) October 4, 2021
Allen later apologized for his mistake, reflecting that he didn’t intend any harm to Wallace or anyone in the situation.
Michael Jordan is proud after Bubba Wallace’s victory
While I understand the issue these people are bringing up I disagree with it. This was a major story all last season it gained national “NEWS” not just sports news. I agree that it was way over blown and the investigations showed it was not criminally motivated nor was it motivated directly at Wallace. I do however think that Allen has to mention it. This is the race track that happened at. and this is his home state track. It adds to the story. If Allen had clarified his comments he would have faced the same kind of backlash only 100 times louder. He was being very respectful of the story. I think he could have said something like While the FBI found no direct evidence that the rope was meant to be a target toward Wallace this still would be very difficult of a line to walk.