Bubba Wallace responds to FBI investigation

NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace told NBC on Wednesday that he's relieved the noose found in his garage wasn't targeted towards him, but he's confident that it was a noose.

"It was definitely in the shape of a noose. Wasn't a functioning noose," Wallace told NBC's morning show, 'Today.'

"It's alerting and it makes you it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up for sure," he said.

One of Wallace's crew members discovered a rope that resembled a noose in their garage stall.

NASCAR moved quickly and called in the FBI to investigate, who ruled on Tuesday that the noose had been hanging there since at least last October and was not a hate crime.

Wallace is NASCAR's only Black driver and had successfully called for the ban of the Confederate flag and received threats.

Fans paraded past the main entrance of the Alabama track displaying the flag, and a plane circled above the speedway pulling a Confederate flag banner that read "Defund NASCAR."

U.S. Attorney Jay Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr. said the investigation determined "nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned" to that same stall.

NASCAR said it was the lone garage stall with a pull-down rope that resembled a noose.

NASCAR has defended its reaction and insisted it would call the FBI again.

Wallace never saw the rope.

He said NASCAR President Steve Phelps came to see him Sunday night at the track with "tears running down his face."

Even after the conclusion it was not a hate crime, Wallace remained angry at what he perceives as constant tests of his character.

He holds no ill-will toward NASCAR.