NASCAR probes noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage in Talladega

NASCAR said in a statement late Sunday that it had launched an "immediate investigation" after a noose was found in Bubba Wallace's garage at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama.

Why it matters: He's NASCAR's only black driver and helped push for the Confederate flag to be banned from the circuit's events and properties, Axios' Kendall Baker notes. NASCAR vowed to do "everything we can to identify" whomever was responsible and "eliminate them from the sport" following the "heinous act." Wallace said in a statement the "act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism."

Go deeper: NASCAR says it will ban display of Confederate flag