NASCAR's Brandon Brown Announces Sponsorship Referencing Anti-Joe Biden Slogan

NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Brandon Brown has announced a season-long sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency LGBcoin:

LGBcoin is a reference to "Let's Go Brandon," a phrase that has become code for "F--k Joe Biden."

The phrase began after Brown won his first career race in October at Talladega Superspeedway. When fans at the Alabama raceway began a chant against President Joe Biden, the NBC sports broadcast incorrectly believed they were chanting "Let's Go Brandon."

Though the saying has now grown in conservative circles, Brown initially tried to avoid involvement.

"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 told Ben Smith of the New York Times earlier this month. "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."

"I have zero desire to be involved in politics," he added.

NASCAR has also tried to separate itself from the saying.

"I feel for Brandon," NASCAR president Steve Phelps said in November. "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."

It now appears Brown is willing to lean into the phrase with his new sponsor, with NASCAR approving the politically partisan paint scheme despite Phelps' previous comments.