How would a crew member NOT recognize that a regular pull rope is not the same as a noose?
Either someone tied the already-noose-like knot into a bigger noose as a joke/message/statement etc., or someone on Bubba's team isn't paying enough attention to their surroundings.
There's a whole lot about the story that doesn't add up.
The rope has been tied that way since 2019... wouldn't a crew member be familiar and know it wasn't just re-tied that way because Bubba is in that stall?
Were the other stall ropes tied into a noose? (There is a difference between a loop and a noose, and one of the pictures floating around makes it look like it's a legit noose, and not just a pull loop)
Is Bubba's team member too on edge? Too sensitive? Or did someone say "hey why is that pull loop tied into an actual noose?" and then Nascar officials went off the deep end?
It's a shame that Bubba is gonna catch heat as having 'made it up' even though his team and Nascar had kept him distanced from the incident from the beginning, whether it was a hoax, an overreaction, a poor joke, etc.