Authorities investigating after apparent noose found at California raceway

Authorities in California are investigating after another noose was reportedly found at a NASCAR race track, this time Sonoma Raceway.

According to the track, a member of the raceway’s staff found the noose hanging from a tree Saturday morning.

“If this is what it appears to be, it is distressing and disgusting, and it has no place in the sport,” Steve Page, Sonoma Raceway’s president and general manager told the Sonoma Index-Tribune.

“Someone had taken the time to tie it into a noose,” he added. “We think it is what it appears to be.”

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office is handling the case as a possible hate crime, a spokeswoman for the office said in a statement.

The noose at the racetrack comes after Bubba Wallace, the only full-time Black driver competing in NASCAR found a noose in his team’s garage before a race at the Talladega track in Alabama.

All of this comes after NASCAR banned Confederate flags from all of its racetracks.

NASCAR and the sport’s biggest figures have all condemned the actions.