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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., 19 Feb (AP) \u2014 Brandon Brown drove into NASCAR\u2019s home track and immediately saw his name everywhere. Banners. Yard signs. T-shirts. Flags waving atop row after row of flashy RVs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, they know it\u2019s for me and they\u2019re pulling for me,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
At least not completely.<\/p>\n
One of the most unrecognizable drivers in NASCAR is in the clutches of a swirling culture war he never asked to be part of as he quietly pursued a racing career. Take a look around the Daytona infield and the \u201cLet\u2019s Go Brandon\u201d flags that dot the landscape outnumber the ones for Earnhardt and Elliott \u2014 and embody the unofficial battle cry of the sport\u2019s right-leaning fanbase.<\/p>\n
NASCAR denounced the slogan. The fans who turned Daytona International Speedway into a Republican rally when former President Donald Trump visited two years ago \u2014 some still gleefully recall his pace lap in the armored presidential limo called \u201cThe Beast\u201d \u2014 have reveled in hijacking a televised faux pas as an insult directed at President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
Brown just wants to race. Instead, the kind of spotlight he wished would have burned out by now continues to beam right on him.<\/p>\n
Like it or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that make me look like the enemy,\u201d he told The Associated Press before his season opened Saturday with NASCAR\u2019s second-tier Xfinity Series race at Daytona.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Brown unwittingly became entangled in this debacle when he won his first career NASCAR race in October in Alabama, and the Talladega Superspeedway crowd chanted \u201cF— Joe Biden\u201d during Brown\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n
It was not clear if NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast, who was wearing a headset, could hear what the crowd was saying during the interview, and she incorrectly told Brown the fans were cheering \u201cLet\u2019s go, Brandon.\u201d<\/p>\n
What should have been laughed off as a blown-over blooper somehow escalated into the fast-evolving pop-culture lexicon. Politicians shouted the phrase from the House floor and repeated the soundbite in campaign ads. Trump\u2019s website offers ornaments, buttons and pint glasses \u2014 $29.95 for a set of two \u2014 with \u201cLet\u2019s go Brandon\u201d stamped on each piece of kitschy merchandise. The souvenir shops that line Daytona\u2019s streets sell Brandon-inspired T-shirts \u2014 none of them, of course, approved by NASCAR.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, my name\u2019s out there. People know who I am now,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThere\u2019s some reputability to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown had been relatively unknown while racing since 2014 in NASCAR\u2019s two developmental series and had never won until Talladega. His euphoria in the aftermath dimmed as the slogan shot from meme to mainstream fodder. Brown largely stayed out of the fray.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal was to stay silent and hope that it went away,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, it got legs of its own and people started putting words in my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown granted few interviews. But he said he received \u201can overwhelming amount of hate\u201d on social media as #LGB turned into a political football he wasn\u2019t prepared to handle.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, a big goal was and still is to change the narrative of what LGB means,\u201d he wrote last month in a statement. \u201cI would like it to become a constructive voice for those like myself, who land somewhere in the middle and have views that align with both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown drives for underfunded and undermanned Brandonbilt Motorsports team owned by his father, and the big-buck sponsorships that prop up teams in the series have been hard to find. Brown said he was determined not to capitalize on his newfound notoriety until he announced in December a full-season deal with LGBCoin. You know, a crypto coin capitalizing on the \u201cLet\u2019s Go Brandon\u201d craze.<\/p>\n
One problem: NASCAR had not approved the LGB sponsorship \u2014 even as Brandonbilt prematurely announced it.<\/p>\n
The agreement quickly collapsed and Brown had cryptocurrency platform Trade The Chain on the No. 68 Chevrolet on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, really, truly, it\u2019s been kind of a whirlwind with the things that went on with NASCAR and having sponsorship denied to now,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, all right, keep the wind in our sails, ride off that Talladega win and try and find some more primaries to take over the spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
His career at stake, Brown is not in position to decline ever-important sponsorship dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou obviously want to stay open to any and all partnerships,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to alienate anybody you currently work with. I\u2019ve kind of had to toe that line.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Original Larry\u2019s Hard Lemonade Brewing Company sponsored Brown on his Talladega car and filmed a celebratory commercial shortly after the win. Vic Reynolds, the company\u2019s co-founder, cut ties with Brown in January in the aftermath of the LGBCoin fallout and wrote, \u201call money is not good money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reynolds was upset that his company had stood by Brown \u2014 only to be left behind in the whirlwind of confusion surrounding the LGBCoin sponsorship announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMistakes may have been made in choosing a new sponsor instead of sticking with the companies that got him to victory lane,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/p>\n
Without a tie to the elite teams in the Cup Series, like Team Penske or Joe Gibbs Racing, losing sponsorship would be a death knell to his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to stop here,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get to the Cup Series somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n
He walked the garage in Daytona in anonymity, the outside noise nonexistent as he plopped his helmet on top of his car and talked to his crew. There are no autograph hounds like collectors who chase Cup drivers.<\/p>\n
But outside the fence, Brown is a folk hero.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m in the race suit, everybody knows who I am,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIf I\u2019m in my street clothes, I\u2019m just another guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Raccioppi of Deerfield Beach had an anti-Biden flag and Trump flags flying from his camping spot in the Daytona infield and said he had a new favorite driver. He had never heard of Brown until #LGB became a phenomenon. Could he recognize him?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no,\u201d he said. \u201cI did actually follow him for a bit on Instagram and see what\u2019s going on. He doesn\u2019t do anything political. Which is cool! He\u2019s racing. He had nothing to do with the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Nogues, of Slidell, Louisiana, was among scores of fans interviewed in the Daytona infield who said the slogan was mostly good fun. Nothing personal, Brandon. But #LGB simply captured the zeitgeist of the moment in right-wing circles and resonated as a clever G-rated code to bash Biden.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a cool, funny part of Americana,\u201d Nogues said. \u201cIt\u2019s an expression of the frustration in the country in a fun and harmless kind of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
But some see the slogan as a modern, Confederate-flag-type headache for NASCAR at a point in its 74-year history where the series has made critical strides in diversity.<\/p>\n
Steve Phelps, NASCAR\u2019s president, said the top motorsports series in the United States does not want to be associated with politics \u201con the left or the right.\u201d Yet its conservative ties get top billing in Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch is the honorary starter and Landon Cassill is driving a car fielded by Spire Motorsports and sponsored by Fox Nation.<\/p>\n
Brown knows he won\u2019t be able to shake #LGB, even as he tries to convince himself he can win over fans with his performance, not politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope they\u2019re saying it about the 68, right? That\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to hope they\u2019re saying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go Brandon to get to victory lane.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., 19 Feb (AP) \u2014 Brandon Brown drove into NASCAR\u2019s home track and immediately saw his name everywhere. Banners. Yard signs. T-shirts. Flags waving atop row after row of flashy RVs. \u201cHopefully, they know it\u2019s for me and they\u2019re pulling for me,\u201d Brown said. They\u2019re not. At least not completely. One of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-184685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}