It’s not OK: NASCAR denounces ‘Let’s go, Brandon’ cry

NASCAR, the top motorsports series in the United States, denounced its association with the “Let’s go, Brandon” political cry being used across the country as an insult directed at President Joe Biden.

 NASCAR does not want to be associated with politics “on the left or the right,” Steve Phelps, its president, said on Friday while adding that NASCAR will pursue action against any illegal use of its trademarks on merchandise boasting the slogan.

“We will pursue whoever (is using logos) and get that stuff. That’s not OK. It’s not OK that you’re using our trademarks illegally, regardless of whether we agree with what the position is,” Phelps was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

The phrase has become a rallying cry for Biden’s critics, and “Let’s go, Brandon” is now conservative code for the original vulgar chant.

Retired baseball star Lenny Dykstra had posted a photo on Twitter this week of a man-eating breakfast at a New Jersey hotel. The man in the photo was wearing a black “Let’s go, Brandon” shirt alongside NASCAR’s trademarked colour bars.

This stand is a reversal of NASCAR’s long history of allowing political candidates to use its races as campaign stops. President Donald Trump was the honorary starter at the Daytona 500 in 2020 and the sold-out February crowd made NASCAR’s Super Bowl feel like a campaign rally until his plane flew over the Florida speedway after his command to start the engines.

Drivers and their families posed for selfies with Trump ahead of the race, and in early 2016 reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott was among a handful of drivers who attended a Georgia rally with then-NASCAR chairman Brian France in support of Trump. Several in the group, including NASCAR’s most popular driver, spoke on stage.

NASCAR also took aggressive positions on social justice issues in 2020 during a nationwide racial reckoning following the death of George Floyd. NASCAR banned the display of the Confederate flag at its events at the request of Bubba Wallace, its only Black full-time driver. Wallace wore an “I Can’t Breathe” shirt on pit road and ran with a Black Lives Matter paint scheme in one race.

Phelps said NASCAR respects the presidential office.

“Do we like the fact that it kind of started with NASCAR and then is gaining ground out elsewhere? No, we’re not happy about that,” Phelps said.

(With AP inputs)