All signs suggest the noose left in Bubba Wallace's garage was an inside job and NASCAR has vowed the person will be 'banned from the sport for life'

• NASCAR has vowed that whoever hung a noose from Bubba Wallace's garage stall will be "banned from the sport for life."
• Both NASCAR and the FBI are investigating the act of hatred, but it's more than likely they'll find that the culprit came from within the association's own ranks.
• In an interview with SiriusXM, Wallace's mother, Desiree Wallace, said the perpetrator "is an insider as far as NASCAR" and that she's "just praying that it's not one of his team members."
• Only a select few people — including team members, officials, security, and cleaning personnel — are allowed in the area where the noose was found, according to ESPN's Marty Smith.

NASCAR is committed to getting justice for Bubba Wallace.

On Sunday, the organization announced that a noose had been found in Wallace's garage stall at the Talladega Speedway prior to Monday's GEICO 500. NASCAR condemned the "heinous act" in Sunday's statement before resolving "to make the sport open and welcoming to all" and to "do everything we can to identify the person(s) responsible and eliminate them from the sport."

NASCAR President Steve Phelps reiterated the association's stance in his own comments on Monday, telling ESPN's Marty Smith that the culprit will "unequivocally" be "banned from this sport for life." And though NASCAR and its leadership appear genuine in their commitment to racial justice and equity within their sport, executing this promise could prove more challenging than it may seem.

Both NASCAR and the FBI are investigating the act of hatred perpetrated on Sunday. They'll look to the cameras surveilling the area and use other resources in their search, but identifying the culprit may not be "that simple," according to Wallace's mother, Desiree Wallace.

"There were video cameras but there were not cameras where the noose was hung," she told SiriusXM's Joe Madison. "See, everybody thinks there are cameras around there, they know who's done it. Unfortunately, it's not that simple."

"But they do have a roster of the names of who was allowed in the garage," Wallace added.

There's typically a limited group of people who have access to the garage stalls at NASCAR events, and additional safety measures as a result of the coronavirus pandemic have further narrowed the list of those who were permitted in the area around the time the noose was presumably hung.

According to Smith, that roster includes team members, officials, and select security and cleaning personnel. Fans were nowhere near that region of the Talladega Speedway, and while Phelps "can't say... for certain that there wasn't a security breach," he stressed to Smith that "security was very tight in that area."

It's all but certain, then, that the noose hanging was an inside job. Even Desiree Wallace echoed that sentiment in her interview with Madison on Monday.

"It is an insider as far as NASCAR," she told Smith. "I'm just praying that it's not one of his team members."

Without direct footage of the incident in question, it will likely be difficult to determine whether those inside the garage were there to do their jobs as usual or to commit the heinous act of racism in question. And in the more than likely event that the guilty party is affiliated with one of NASCAR's Cup Series teams or the association's general staff, terminating them may not be as simple as Phelps implied.

But the parties involved in the investigation still need to identify those involved before determining how to handle their punishment. In an interview with The View on Tuesday, Bubba Wallace said the FBI's inquiry into the event remains ongoing and confirmed that he had talked to their investigators.

"It's all in the FBI's hands to go through everything and try to figure it out," Wallace said.

• Read more:
• A noose was found in the stall of a Black NASCAR driver — just hours after Confederate flags flew over the track at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama
• NASCAR drivers staged a beautiful display of support for Bubba Wallace — NASCAR's only Black driver — pushing his car and standing with him during the national anthem after a noose was found in his garage stall
• A plane toting a banner with the Confederate flag and reading 'defund NASCAR' flew over the track at Talladega in protest of its ban from all races
• NASCAR bans the Confederate flag from all races in their latest move to support racial equality and social justice