NASCAR reportedly shuts down 'Let's Go Brandon' sponsorship deal after granting initial OK

NASCAR on Tuesday formally rejected a sponsorship deal based on the anti-Biden "Let's go, Brandon" chant.

What are the details?

Last week, Brandonbilt Motorsports and Xfinity Series driver Brandon Brown — whose post-victory interview in October first sparked the slogan — announced their partnership with cryptocurrency meme coin LGBcoin.io for the 2022 season.

In a press release, the team showcased Brown's new paint scheme, which featured "an eye-catching red, white, and blue livery with the logo and wordmark of LGBcoin aboard his No. 68 Chevrolet Camaro."

But according to a NASCAR spokesperson speaking with Motorsport.com, Brown's team "jumped the gun" in publicizing the deal, which was initially OK'd by a NASCAR employee but failed to gain full clearance upon further review.

The Washington Post reported that the NASCAR official who initially signed off on the deal was not authorized to do so. RACER reported that the deal "was not done through the appropriate portal and was incorrectly approved without proper understanding of the LGBcoin."

NASCAR has yet to issue a formal statement on the matter.

In conversation with Fox Business, a spokesperson for Brown, Maxwell Marcucci, claimed that NASCAR did officially approve the deal only to walk it back later. He added that the organization's subsequent statements have run "counter to facts of the situation."

"After the announcement went live on Thursday morning, NASCAR acknowledged to us late that afternoon that we had received approval but that they now needed to discuss this at a higher level," Marcucci reportedly said.

What's the background?

Brown was the central figure in the launch of the politically tumultuous slogan, which has become a coded way of saying, "F*** Joe Biden."

During an interview with NBC after Brown's first career Xfinity Series victory last October, fans in the grandstands at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama began shouting the anti-Biden chant. Then, either out of confusion or in a poor attempt to control the narrative, the NBC sports reporter incorrectly claimed that the crowd was chanting "Let's go, Brandon" to celebrate Brown's victory.

The moment immediately went viral, and "Let's go, Brandon" became a tongue-in-cheek rallying cry for critics of President Biden, to the left's chagrin.

Brown, for his part, has claimed that he has "zero desire to be involved in politics" and is actually leery of being associated with the controversial chant for fear of being "canceled" and losing out on sponsorship deals.

In the press release announcing the sponsorship deal, Brandonbilt Motorsports said LGBcoin is a "patriotic coin" that "aims to inspire positivity and unity, grounded in a strong belief of the American dream."

The coin is reportedly similar to other meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu and, despite having no intrinsic value, has achieved a market capitalization of more than $300 million in under six months.

“We are proud to support Brandon this season, to help him continue his American dream,” James Koutoulas, the founder of Typhoon Capital Management, added. "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.'"

Brandonbilt Motorsports reportedly plans to fight NASCAR's rejection of the sponsorship deal, but the team is likely to face an uphill battle, as NASCAR reserves the right to deny any sponsorship agreements it deems to be "detrimental" to the sport.