Over the past several days we have seen controversy in the NASCAR Xfinity Series world over Brandon Brown and his car. Brown and his team BrandonBilt Motorsports announced that they have a full season sponsor coming from LGB Coin, a meme crypto currency going off the ‘Let's Go Brandon’ meme. Overall this is just another sponsor in the NASCAR world but the biggest problem is the fact that Let's Go Brandon is associated as a kinder way of showing displease towards President Joe Biden. Let’s Go Brandon emerged when Brandon Brown and his underfunded team won at Talladega back in 2021, during the post race on track interview fans were chanting “F Joe Biden,” which was heard on both on the track and on tv. The sports reporter who was interviewing Brandon said that the fans were chanting “Lets Go Brandon,” that clip instantly went viral and now LGB can be heard at any sports stadium in America.
Due to LGB being associated with politics it been extremely hard for Brandon Brown to get sponsorship, which led him to a career altering decision, run without sponsors in 2022 and end up not being able to compete in every race with the chance of having to stop racing all together or accept the LGB Coin sponsorship which provides funding for the entire 2022 racing season. Brown took the path that would keep his career going, with that said the team made its announcement on Twitter and immediately he went on the trending page as Brown got support along with hate, most of it coming from people who most likely have never even watched a NASCAR race on tv. Six hours after the announcement NASCAR said that the sponsorship was not approved yet and right away it turned into a he said-she said ordeal as Brown and his team said they got an email several days before their announcement saying that the car is approved with the only feedback was to the numbers mainly to make it more seeable at high speeds. At this point the sponsor is still going through in final stages before its approval or denial as the Daytona Speed weeks approach in mid February.
Brandon Brown has remained fairly silent since his Super Speedway win, but over the past several weeks he has been opening up to the media about the win and LGB while also saying as the biggest thing that big corporate companies do not want to be associated with him. Brandon is hopeful of making “Let’s Go Brandon” actually about him and have it drive away from the political track. Brown is hoping that with this sponsorship that LGB will start being a cheer for him when he competes in races as the season goes on.
During this time there has also been talk about the legitimacy of the LGB Coin as it is not even worth half of a penny. The biggest question is how will LGB Coin be able to pay Brown for the full season as this has reminded many people of the DC Solar sponsor failure and the Rich Energy HAAS deal in Formula One. Overall this is not the first time a meme cryptocurrency has sponsored a car in NASCAR as Dogecoin sponsored the Josh Wise and more recently Stefan Parsons last season in the Xfinity Series, but that was not for the full season. If the paint scheme is approved by NASCAR it will be interesting to see just how far the coin can bring the underdog team.
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