https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2020/06/25/nascar-completes-investigation-into-no-43-garage-stall-at-talladega/
There’s a picture of the rope - and that’s a hangman’s noose. I can’t see how anyone could think of it as anything else. It may have been being used to pull down the door, but someone very carefully tied it in a hangman’s knot.
Supposedly, it’s been hanging there for months; how many people walked under it, I wonder.
I will say, it’s the sort of thing I might do, due to my weird sense of humor. I can also say I can understand why someone working for a black driver would be rightfully…concerned.