TGR Staff - 01/05/2022
NASCAR officially informed Brandonbilt Motorsports Tuesday night that the much-publicized LGBcoin sponsorship has not been approved for Brandon Brown’s No. 86 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Brandonbilt Motorsports claims that NASCAR already approved the sponsorship, which was listed as a cryptocurrency without any mention of the political association of the LGBcoin. A meme coin based on the “Let’s Go Brandon” slogan, that was created when Brown was being interviewed at Talladega in 2020 when NBC reporter Kelli Stavast stated that the crowd was shouting "Let's Go Brandon" when in actuality they were shouting a disparaging chant about President Joe Biden.
NASCAR has not issued a formal statement on the decision, but in the past has allowed sponsors and liveries that supported political candidates like the Mike Harmon Racing "Trump | Pence 2020" car and social justice messaging such as Bubba Wallace's #blacklivesmatter car which also ran during the 2020 season. But NASCAR has reserved the right to deny sponsors they considered "detrimental to the sport" and it is likely that they would much rather distance the sport as the catalyst for the"Let's Go Brandon" chant.
James Koutoulas, a hedge fund manager and reportedly the founder of LGBcoin shared screenshots of emails via Twitter showing that NASCAR's Dale Howell had indeed approved the sponsorship and only asked for a slight change to the livery design so it would be more readable. However, a NASCAR spokesperson told the publication Racer that the submission was not done through proper channels and was incorrectly approved. Apparently, the team was informed in November that NASCAR would not approve LGBcoin as a sponsor if it included the slogan "Let's Go Brandon." Sources also report that NASCAR plans to issue new guidance for the 2022 season as the sport looks to distance itself from any political messaging on race cars.
LGBcoin still has Brown and his car featured on their website and an entire paragraph on the sponsorship in the about section. Much of the drama surrounding NASCAR's decision is playing out on Twitter. Several Tweets by LGBcoin founder James Koutoulas indicate that they may be taking legal action against NASCAR claiming hundreds of millions in damages, declaring in one post"So now it's war." Koutoulas also claims that the revocation is in response to pressure on NASCAR implying that NBC or the Biden Administration applied pressure on the sanctioning body.
Needless to say there this story is far from over and it will be interesting to see if NASCAR rolls out new guidelines on political messaging and the sponsorship approval process moving forward.
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