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NASCAR Makes Decision on LGBCoin Sponsorship for Brandon Brown

A Brandonbilt Motorsports spokesperson said the organization “rescinded the approval.”Brandonbilt Motorsports spokesperson Max Marcucci said in a statement on Wednesday that NASCAR decided to “rescind the approval” of LGBCoin being Xfinity driver Brandon Brown‘s primary partner for the 2022 season. Per a previous statement from Bandonbilt Motorsports on Jan. 2, the team “received written approval on the sponsors from a NASCAR Racing Operations official on December 26, 2021.” But, when the announcement was made on Dec. 30, NASCAR had not approved it nor had the approval process begun.NASCAR has not issued an official statement on the matter, but per The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck, it told the team in a November meeting that “it wouldn’t approve any ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ sponsorship.” Brandonbilt Motorsports reportedly filed its request in later December, listing LGBCoin as just cryptocurrency without specifying that the first three letters of the company stand for “Let’s Go Brandon.”After Brown’s Talladega victory last season, the crowd was heard chanting something as the Xfinity driver was interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter. Per Fox NY, the reporter suggested it was “Let’s go, Brandon” in honor of the driver; however, it was later revealed that the crowd was saying, “F— Joe Biden.” The chant rapidly became a political meme.“The bottom line is that Brandonbilt Motorsports followed the standard process for sponsor and paint scheme approval and received approval from a NASCAR official empowered to make those decisions, and who makes those decisions on a regular basis,” Marcucci said Wednesday. ”This official then confirmed and reiterated that we had received approval in a phone conversation after the announcement was made.“We are disappointed that NASCAR leadership has chosen to rescind approval of this sponsorship and feel they should have the confidence to own their decision to backtrack and not gaslight a team or a driver.”NASCAR has attempted to distance itself from the “Let’s go Brandon” chant as president Steve Phelps said before the final race of the season, per Yahoo! Sports, “We do not want to associate ourselves with politics, the left or the right.” He continued, saying, “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.”Brown recently told The New York Times he was unable to get a sponsor because of the chant, adding that he had “zero desire to be involved in politics.”“This whole Talladega race win was supposed to be a celebration, and then it was supposed to be something that I was able to use to move up, and I really wanted to capitalize on that,” Brown said to The Times. “But with this meme going viral, it was more of, I had to stay more silent, because everybody wanted it to go on to the political side. I’m about the racing side.”More Racing Coverage: Max Verstappen’s World Title: How a Grueling Battle Turned Into a Dream Come TrueLewis Hamilton Knighted After F1 World Championship HeartbreakDustin Sprouse Is an Openly Gay Dirt Track Racer. His Life Is Complicated.The Netflix Effect: How a Docuseries Helped Trigger an F1 Boom
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Written by: Madeline Coleman