NASCAR driver Brandon Brown may have to sit out races this year due to a lack of sponsorships after leaning into the far-right slogan based on his name.
Brown is the Brandon referenced in the popular far-right refrain "Let's Go Brandon," a coded phrase that means "Fu*k Joe Biden." It was coined after a journalist at a 2021 NASCAR event misreported the crowd's chants of "Fu*k Joe Biden" as "Let's Go Brandon" in reference to Brown, the winner of the event.
After leaning into the viral fame his namesake slogan provided, Brown is now stepping down from a race this Saturday after his main sponsorship, an anti-Biden cryptocurrency named after the slogan, went defunct.
He is now being replaced in this weekend's race and is likely to face a similar fate in future races as well.
In the wake of the "Let's Go Brandon" incident, Brown tried to duck away from the viral moment, telling the The New York Times in a December profile titled "Brandon Just Wants to Drive His Racecar" that he had an aversion to politics. He told the 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."
Two weeks later however, Brown leaned in, accepting sponsorship for his entire next NASCAR season by a cryptocurrency called Let's Go Brandon, despite NASCAR's public objections.
The coin is now essentially worthless and is also a central component of an ongoing ethics investigation into disgraced former far-right Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn, who promoted the cryptocurrency without disclosing his investments in it.
The cryptocurrency is also the subject of a class-action lawsuit, in which Brown was named as one of the defendants.
Brown has belatedly returned to distancing himself from the slogan and movement he previously embraced.
Earlier this month he participated in an event with a children's book author who has tried to put a positive spin on the catchphrase by writing a children's book about her autistic son Brandon, who thought the "Let's Go Brandon" chant was in reference to him.
But being linked to a slogan beloved by the anti-Biden far-right has unsurprisingly alienated sponsors who don't wish to be associated with America's strain of increasingly extremist conservatism.
Brown lamented the situation he has found himself in while speaking to racing news site Frontstretch:
"I’m still viewed as a political figure."
"I can be viewed as divisive because of the chant. It’s really hard to convince companies that, ‘Hey, that’s not me. That’s just what the crowd was chanting.’ It does make it hard."
On Twitter, some lamented that Brown had gotten caught in the crossfire of America's culture wars.
But many felt Brown brought it all on himself.
Brown told Frontstretch he will be racing in his usual car, Number 68, for two upcoming races, but the car will likely be driven by other racers who can secure funding for the rest of the season.
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