Bubba Wallace was assigned garage position number 4, where a rope with a rope knot was found, in Talladega Superspeedway according to point classification and COVID-19 protocol, according to a report by The Washington Post.
A federal investigation concluded earlier this week that no hate crime had been committed when a member of the Richard Petty Motorsports team found a “rope”, which was later described as a pull on the garage door.
There have been questions that we are now beginning to get answers to.
The rope, the investigation concluded, had been at the post since October. So, people have asked how Wallace was assigned that particular garage position in Talladega.
NASCAR generally assigns garage positions based on point rankings. The leader gets the best position, which, according to The Washington Post, is “typically closest to the entrance to the track, to facilitate access in and out of frenetic practice sessions, the number of which varies from track to track” .
Therefore, the team in second place gets the next place and so on.
Under those rules, Wallace, who was ranked 20th in the standings, would have been assigned accordingly.
However, due to coronavirus protocols, that was not the case.
NASCAR is now grouping multi-car teams into adjoining seats to limit social interaction in the garage.
So on Sunday at Talladega, points leader Kevin Harvick as points leader was at number 1, then his teammates at Stewart-Haas – Clint Bowyer, Aric Amirola and Cole Custer – were assigned to the following positions.
Joey Logano, who was second in the standings, and Team Penske were assigned.
According to the report, Richard Petty de Wallace’s team was assigned to Position No. 4.
On Wednesday, Wallace identified mechanic David Cropps as the team member who found the rope at his station. It also revealed that Cropps went to other posts to see if other teams had similar garage pulls.
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.
