Fake noose? No, not exactly.

But the garage-door pull at Talladega Superspeedway which approximated a noose and caused NASCAR to go off the deep end (however righteously) has given ample ammunition to those who want to discredit Bubba Wallace as a new-day Jussie Smollett.

It also diminished the impact of Monday’s feel-good moment that saw NASCAR’s drivers push Wallace’s No. 43 car to the front of the grid, then embrace a tearful Wallace (NASCAR’s lone Black driver). It rings hollow now.

Once the FBI said no hate crime had been committed and the “noose” had been there since 2019, the whole thing felt like a set-up.

It wasn’t. (Well, probably not.) But that’s how it felt.

Nothing got changed. The parking lot at Talladega was littered with Confederate flags in defiance of NASCAR banning them from inside the track. One got flown overhead by an airplane. The mentality of too many NASCAR fans still embraces backward thinking.

You got the sense this was much ado about nothing by early Tuesday, when the race was over but photos of the noose were scarce and a culprit had not been found. The garage had ample security cameras. It seemed an easy crime to solve.

But there was no crime.

Emotions ran high, especially with Confederate flags flying outside. But if photos of the “noose” are accurate, it’s hard to believe anyone perceived it as being planted, especially given its functionality via being attached to the door. That knot has multiple uses.

It’s also hard to believe nobody noticed it prior. The “noose” was in a prominent spot and had been there since 2019.

Did Wallace, Wallace’s crew and NASCAR want this to be a legit hate crime by way of serving an agenda? No. (Well, probably not.) But it’s fair to wonder that and, as noted above, it certainly enables those who want to discredit.

One thing is certain: The media definitely wanted it to be true. There was no hesitation before thumping that tub.

Hey, guilty as charged. (I work in sports talk radio, remember.)

But, as ESPN’s Will Cain tweeted, “Curiosity, questions, and the search for the truth were dismissed as contrarian at best, racist at worst. Real claims of racism are undercut.” There’s no arguing any of that.

Wallace kept the fire burning on CNN when he said, “I’ve been racing all of my life. We’ve raced out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pulls like that. It’s a straight-up noose.” OK, but it had been there since 2019 and was likely fashioned out of convenience and not to menace anybody.

Wallace also referred to “evidence.” Bad word to use when the FBI has already said no evidence exists that a crime was committed.

Wallace knows what happened Monday was undone in the eyes of many. The case was solved by the time he was on CNN, but Wallace still played the victim. (He isn’t.)

Wallace seems a good man and did right by pushing for the exclusion of Confederate imagery from NASCAR. That was long overdue. He can’t help but be frustrated by the continued peripheral presence of that imagery even after the ban.

Perhaps that frustration fueled what turned out to be an embarrassing overreaction on the part of many. The aftermath is divisive. That’s the worst possible result.

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