NASCAR Cancels Brandon Brown Sponsorship With Crypto Firm LGBcoin

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One of the rising stars of professional stock car racing lost a sponsorship deal this week because the cryptocurrency company behind the partnership has its roots in a divisive political slogan – “Let’s go. , Brandon “- which has become a Conservative slogan to curse President Joe Biden.

NASCAR driver Brandon Brown announced last week that he has signed a sponsorship with LGBcoin.io, a new cryptocurrency meme similar to Dogecoin. The deal included Brown’s running this year with the LGBcoin logo painted on his car. Brown, 28, drives a Chevrolet Camaro for Brandonbilt Motorsports.

However, senior NASCAR officials rejected the sponsor and the paint scheme on Tuesday afternoon, a source familiar with the NASCAR decision told CBS MoneyWatch.

I am delighted to welcome @LGBcoin_io aboard my # 68 Chevrolet Camaro as the Main Partner of the full season of the NASCAR Xfinity 2022 Series!

Press release: https://t.co/yWfkonk8vO pic.twitter.com/s8PkfCtnVD

– Brandon Brown (@ brandonbrown_68) December 30, 2021

“The team owner and the driver were both informed on November 5 during an in-person meeting that no form of this derogatory and vulgar understatement would be allowed on any paint scheme or sponsorship,” said the source.

Brandonbilt did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the sponsorship. NASCAR also declined to comment.

Brown recently found himself in the national spotlight after a post-race interview he gave in October inadvertently spawned the phrase “Come on, Brandon” – a veiled insult to President Biden who has been since has become a new mantra among some Republican conservatives.

After winning his first Xfinity Series race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, Brown was being interviewed by a TV reporter when the crowd behind him started singing. While the reporter suggested they were saying “Let’s go, Brandon!” It soon became clear that the crowd was chanting vulgarism against Mr. Biden.

After the interview, the slogan “Let’s Go Brandon” quickly became the code for an insult to Mr. Biden.

Despite its name, LGBcoin admits no connection to “Let’s Go Brandon” as an attack on Mr. Biden, and instead, on its website, describes the cryptocurrency as “not inherently political.” The coin first appeared in early November and now has a market cap of around $ 180 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

LGBcoin founder James Koutoulas said in a statement last month that the company was keen to sponsor Brown because he is “an incredibly talented pilot” and “wise beyond his years.” The purpose of the sponsorship was to showcase Brown as “America’s driver,” Koutoulas said.

“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,’ Koutoulas said during the sponsorship first announcement.

The newly painted Brown-LGBcoin car was due to debut next month at Daytona International Speedway. In an op-ed published last month in Newsweek, Brown said he had “no interest in fighting a political fight.”

NASCAR driver Brandon Brown poses in front of a new painted version of his Chevrolet car. Brown had a sponsorship with LGBcoin.io which was later turned down by NASCAR. Media by the lake

Yet the Let’s Go Brandon incident is the latest example of NASCAR nipping something highly political in the bud. The league has spent the past two plus years reworking its identity into a sport more welcoming to a diverse crowd of racing fans.

In June 2020, following nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, NASCAR permanently banned the presence of Confederate flags from its events because it said the symbol went against the the league’s goal to “bring people together around a love for racing”.

The move was prompted by Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only full-time black driver, who called for the flag to be banned. Wallace, also 28, has led most of the racial justice changes NASCAR has implemented in recent years, including the removal of the Confederate flag, ESPN reported.

A year later, Wallace became just the second Black NASCAR driver to win a Cup Series, behind Wendell Scott in 1963.

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Christophe J. Brooks

Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch and covers business, consumer and financial affairs that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and sports affairs.

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