NASCAR has reportedly rejected driver Brandon Brown’s sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency meme coin LGBcoin — named for the derogatory phrase “Let’s go, Brandon.”
NASCAR will not allow the LGBcoin.io sponsorship to be on Brown’s No. 68 XFinity Series car, per reports from FOX Sports and The Athletic. Brown announced the sponsorship deal last week and posted a video of the car on social media.
CNN has reached out to NASCAR and Brandonbilt Motorsports for comment.
According to the Washington Post, citing a NASCAR official with knowledge of the deliberations, the racing association’s executives notified the team Tuesday afternoon of its decision.
The Washington Post also reports, “NASCAR made clear during a November discussion about the potential sponsorship that it would not allow any reference or imagery based on the chant. NASCAR’s formal decision was not a reversal, the official made clear, but the governing body’s first and final word on the matter.”
The chant started after Brown won his first career race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama in early October. After the victory, Brown was being interviewed when the crowd started to chant, “F**k Joe Biden.” The reporter interviewing Brown for television said the crowd was chanting, “Let’s go, Brandon.”
In a statement to CNN on Sunday, Brandonbilt Motorsports said the team had announced the sponsorship “only after being provided with [NASCAR] approval.”
The team’s statement said: “The sponsor approval was unambiguous — the first four words of the email from NASCAR state, ‘The sponsors are approved …’ The only feedback offered was related to minor graphic design changes to ensure legibility on the track at 170mph.”
In November’s NASCAR’s state of the sport address, President Steve Phelps distanced the sport from the chant.
“I feel for Brandon,” Phelps said. “I think unfortunately it speaks to the state of where we are as a country. We do not want to associate ourselves with politics, the left or the right. We obviously have and we’ve always had, as a sport, tremendous respect for the office of the president no matter who is sitting.
“I think it’s an unfortunate situation. Do we like the fact that it kind of started with NASCAR and then is gaining ground elsewhere? No, we’re not happy about that. But we will continue to make sure that we have respect for the office of the president.”
On Dec. 19, Brown told the New York Times, “You want to appeal to everybody, because, all in all, everybody is a consumer. I have zero desire to be involved in politics.”
In an opinion piece he wrote that was published the following day in Newsweek. Brown said he “was afraid of being canceled by his sponsors or by the media for being caught up in something that has little to do with me.”
Brown went on to write, “I have no interest in leading some political fight. I race cars. I am not going to endorse anyone, and I am certainly not going to tell anyone how to vote.
“But I’m also no longer going to be silent about the situation I find myself in, and why millions of Americans are chanting my name. I hear them, even if Washington does not.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.