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NASCAR to review Brandon Brown’s cryptocurrency sponsorship

The chant "Let's Go Brandon" began after Brown won his first career race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.

Brandon Brown, a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver, has announced a sponsorship contract with the cryptocurrency meme coin LGBcoin on Thursday, a reference to the controversial “Let’s Go Brandon” expression. It didn’t go well with NASCAR and now the agreement is been reviewed. 

According to Max Marcucci, a representative for Brown’s team, NASCAR provided the team with written consent on the sponsorship and paint scheme late last year. They stated that the team went through the normal sponsorship approval process.

Following the announcement, NASCAR called Marcucci and acknowledged that the team had received approval and apologised for the confusion and miscommunication, but they also stated that the deal “needs to be reviewed at a higher level.”

According to the press release, “Brown will sport an eye-catching red, white, and blue livery with the logo and wordmark of LGBcoin aboard his No. 68 Chevrolet Camaro for all 33 races of the NXS season.”

In the release, James Koutoulas, founder of Typhoon Capital Management and a leading LGBcoin holder, stated, “We are proud to support Brandon this season, to help him continue his American dream. If we do our job right, when you think of us, and you hear, ‘Let’s Go, Brandon,’ you’ll think and feel, ‘Let’s Go America.”

The meme coin is an ‘America’s Coin’ that ‘looks to inspire positivity and unity, grounded in a strong belief in the American dream.’

Brown’s team told CNN, “We were very aware and appreciative of the process required to approve sponsors and paint schemes and would not attempt to circumvent that process.”

The statement from Brown’s team read, “Brandonbilt Motorsports submitted our most recent sponsors and paint scheme to NASCAR, following the standard approval process that we have undertaken many times before without issue.”

“We received written approval on the sponsors from a NASCAR Racing Operations official on December 26, 2021. The team subsequently moved forward with an announcement only after being provided with this approval.

“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. We will continue to work with NASCAR and look forward to resolving this matter and clearing the air as soon as possible.”

The chant “Let’s Go Brandon” began after Brown won his first career race in early October at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.

Brown was being interviewed after his triumph when the crowd began to chant, “F**k Joe Biden.” The reporter said the crowd was instead chanting, “Let’s go Brandon.”

NASCAR President Steve Phelps separated the sport from the chant in his state of the sport address in November.

Phelps said, “I feel for Brandon. 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 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 December 19, Brown told The New York Times, “Our whole navigation is, you want to appeal to everybody, because, all in all, everybody is a consumer. I have zero desire to be involved in politics.”

The next day, the Woodbridge, Virginia native wrote an opinion piece in Newsweek. Brown said that he “was afraid of being cancelled 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.”

“Let’s go Brandon” has become a right-wing chant that means, “F**k Joe Biden,” though Schmeck later told a local Oregon newspaper he remarked in a “Joking manner.”

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