Yahoo Finance North Carolina governor, others slam speedway owner after ad offering ‘Bubba Rope’ for sale
A North Carolina racetrack owner is facing severe backlash after advertising “Bubba Rope” for sale on Facebook, just days after a noose was found in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall at Talladega International Speedway.
Mike Fulp, the owner of 311 Motor Speedway in Stokes County, North Carolina, advertised the “Bubba Rope” for sale on Facebook on Wednesday, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. The post was taken down on Thursday.
“Buy your Bubba Rope today for only $9.99 each, they come with a lifetime warranty and work great.”
NASCAR released a photo of the noose that was hanging in Wallace’s garage stall on Thursday, which federal investigators said had been there since October 2019 and wasn’t directed at Wallace — the sport’s lone Black driver. While he has been subject to harsh criticism in recent days, NASCAR drivers did mount a massive show of solidarity behind Wallace before Monday’s race.
Naturally, Fulp’s post drew harsh backlash — both from users on Facebook and from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
“This incident of racism is horrific and shameful,” Cooper’s deputy communications director Ford Porter told the Winston-Salem Journal. “North Carolina is better than this.”
Local NAACP chapter president Jeff Crisp was outraged, too, and said he’s contacted the NAACP’s state director about seeking criminal charges.
“It is horrible that someone would post something of that nature,” Crisp said, via the Winston-Salem Journal.
“It's just absolutely unnecessary in these times of tension. You go back to slavery days and hanging people and calling them 'strange fruit' on the trees because there were so many slaves hanged. This is not the time for comments like this, just causing unnecessary tension.”
Fulp has a history of racist and offensive social media posts in recent weeks, including one on Wednesday asking for fans to bring Confederate flags — something NASCAR finally banned earlier this month — to their “heritage night” on Saturday. He also opened up his racetrack in May to fans despite Cooper’s order banning large gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however did not let the “corona-infested” media members in.
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