The noose found in the garage stall of NASCAR's only black driver Bubba Wallace was not evidence of a racist hate crime but a pull rope that had been there for months, US investigators said Tuesday. "The FBI has completed its investigation at Talladega Superspeedway and determined that Bubba Wallace was not the target of a hate crime," NASCAR said in a statement after outrage erupted over the incident, at a time when protests against racial justice are sweeping the United States. The probe found the pull rope fashioned like a noose was in the garage stall long before it was assigned to Wallace for Sunday's race at Talladega in Alabama. bb/bgs/ec