Trump accuses driver of hoax

After a weekend spent stoking division, United States President Donald Trump blasted Nascar for banning the Confederate flag and wrongly accused the sport’s only black driver, Bubba Wallace, of perpetrating ‘‘a hoax’’ involving a rope shaped like a noose in his garage.

Exploiting racial tensions, Trump suggested Wallace should apologise after one of his crew members discovered the rope in a garage stall they had been assigned to.

Federal authorities ruled last month that the rope had been hanging there since at least last October and was not a hate crime. Wallace has maintained the rope had been fashioned into a noose and has said he was saddened by ‘‘the despicable act of racism and hatred,‘‘ and other Cup Series drivers rallied around him.

‘‘Has [at]BubbaWallace apologised to all of those great

NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX?‘‘ Trump tweeted. ‘‘That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!’’

While Trump claimed Nascar’s ratings are down, they are actually up.

One of Wallace’s fellow drivers, Tyler Reddick, pushed back at the president. ‘‘We don’t need an apology,’’ wrote Reddick. ‘‘We did what was right and we will do just fine without your support.’’

Wallace responded to Trump with his own message on Twitter addressed to ‘‘the next generation and little ones following my foot steps.’’

Wallace, an Alabama native, has taken an active role in the push for racial equality. He successfully lobbied for Nascar’s Confederate flag ban.

For more than 70 years, the flag was a common and complicated sight at Nascar races.