I think Bubba was duped and Nascar saw an opportunity to get some ink and overplayed it. Anyone looking at the incident that wasn't emotionally involved had serious doubts about it being a racial attack.
His initial comments, he was going off what he was told by NASCAR and his team. His follow up comments after the FBI investigated is what makes it for me.
I had some Senn-Delaney training in another life. One of its tenets is ASSUME INNOCENCE. Meaning, in this case, wait for an investigation to be complete before shooting ones mouth off.
You would be surprised how often ASSUME INNOCENCE is correct.