BUBBA Wallace's father urged him to buy a gun and his fiancé was terrified for their safety after a "noose" was found in the NASCAR star's garage, a new documentary has revealed.

In June 2020, Wallace was mistakenly believed to be the victim of a hate crime when a rope fashioned into the shape of a noose was found hanging from his stall at Talladega Speedway, in Alabama.

Wallace, NASCAR's only full-time black driver, had only days earlier successfully lobbied for the auto racing company to permanently ban the Confederate Flag from being displayed at any of its events.

The request was made at the height of racial injustice protests across the country following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Wallace received an onslaught of backlash over the motion, with some fans of the sport claiming the flag was a crucial part of their southern heritage and therefore an integral part of NASCAR, a sport with deep Southern roots.

On June 21, 2020, a large group of protesters had gathered outside of the Talladega Speedway to protest the ban ahead of the race day.

The "noose" was discovered inside a garage assigned to Wallace's team just hours later after proceedings were postponed for 24 hours due to heavy rainfall.

CONTROVERSY REVISITED

In the forthcoming Netflix docuseries RACE: Bubba Wallace, NASCAR President Steve Phelps recounts the moment he was informed by a member of Wallace's team about the discovery of the rope.

"My heart just sank," Phelps said. "[I thought] 'What are we going to do?' But more importantly, we have to have a discussion with Bubba.

"And, ultimately, I thought that was my responsibility," he added.

Then unaware of the unfolding situation, Wallace said he was left feeling "nervous" when he received a call from Phelps, asking if he could stop by to see him.

"I opened up the door for [Phelps]," Wallace remembered, "and he's got tears in his eyes and he's struggling to talk.

"And he goes, 'there was a noose found in your garage.'"

A dumbfounded Wallace said he responded, "A what?", to which Phelps assured him NASCAR would "find the motherf**ker who did this and ban them from our garage and never let them back in this sport."

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Phelps and other NASCAR executives decided to hastily release a statement to the media about the discovery, hoping to "get out in front" of the story, he said.

The statement read that NASCAR had been left "angry and outraged" by the "heinous act."

Wallace also posted a statement to Twitter, writing, in part, that the "despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened".

'DO YOU HAVE A GUN?'

Phelps called for a full FBI investigation into the incident, and within 24 hours 15 field agents descended on Talladega Speedway.

In the meantime, Wallace said he attempted to assure himself that he was "going to be fine" though he was concerned for his safety.

He called his father, Darrell Wallace Snr., who asked him: "Do you have a gun?" When Bubba responded that he didn't, his dad warned: "Well, you need to get one."

The following day, before the race was due to begin at Talladega, all 39 other NASCAR drivers pushed Wallace's No. 43 car to the front of the grid in a show of solidarity. Dozens of pit members marched in a procession behind them.

Wallace was reduced to tears by the display.

However, within two days, agents with the FBI in Birmingham, Alabama had been able to determine that Wallace wasn't the victim of a hate crime as NASCAR had prematurely suggested.

Instead, the bureau found that the alleged noose was actually a door pull rope fashioned like a noose that had been there since at least October 2019.

Both Wallace and Phelps voiced relief over the FBI's findings, but maintained the rope was fashioned into a noose – and that symbolism alone is problematic.

'IT WAS A NOOSE'

The hangman's noose is connected to lynching in the United States and is considered a symbol of historical violence and racism against black Americans.

Speaking on the forthcoming Netflix documentary, Phelps says: "You can call it a pull-down fashioned as a noose – it's a noose.

"The symbolism of the noose was the issue."

Phelps said NASCAR conducted a thorough sweep of every garage area in all 29 tracks at which it races, a total of 1,684 garages.

During that probe, they found only 11 garages used a pull-down rope tied in a knot, and only one of those was tied into a noose – the one found in Wallace's stall.

The noose wasn't in the garage prior to the October 2019 race weekend, however, it's never been determined who tied the rope in the way it was or why it was done.

"What are the chances?" a suspicious-sounding Amanda Carter, Wallace's fiancé, says in RACE. "What are the chances, that on that weekend, when everything is so tense, that he gets that stall?"

'HOAX' CLAIMS

The backlash to the FBI's findings was swift, with already enraged critics of Wallace accusing him of staging the entire incident as part of an elaborate hoax.

The star's manager told Netflix that Wallace and other members of his team were getting "death threats left and right."

Then-President Donald Trump added fuel to the fire, demanding Wallace apologize to all "of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX?"

NASCAR increased security around Wallace in response to the slew of death threats.

Carter told Netflix that during the fallout, she grew increasingly concerned about her's and Wallace's safety.

She said every time she came home, she'd quietly sweep every room, fearful that someone seeking to do harm to them may have broken in.

FBI Agent Stanley Ruffin, who worked on the Wallace case, dispelled any notions to Netflix that the noose incident was staged by the star, or anyone else.

"It wasn't a hoax – it was real," Ruffin said of the noose-fashioned rope, "and Mr. Wallace had nothing to do with the placement of that noose – and I'll stand by that."

RACE: Bubba Wallace is a six-episode series coming to Netflix on February 22.

The docuseries explores how the events of 2020 reshaped Wallace personally and professionally, and the pressure he faced during the 2021 season after he signed to Michael Jordan's racing team, 23XI Racing.

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