NASCAR is catching up with the times by banning a middle finger to the President
For decades, NASCAR has lagged behind the country on social justice issues. It’s a sport with a past that was oftentimes racist, and a sport that is trying to change.
So the auto-racing organization should be applauded for saying “No” this week to a request to monetize the abhorrent “Let’s Go Brandon” catchphrase.
A sport that is busily trying to diversify in the 21st century should never allow a slogan that is coded criticism for “F--- Joe Biden” onto a car.
It does appear that the sponsorship turn-down was unnecessarily awkward. Driver Brandon Brown’s team first believed it had secured permission to wrap his car in an advertisement for a cryptocurrency trying to capitalize on the slogan that has become a rallying cry for the right wing. Now NASCAR says it’s not allowed — there is some dispute about whether he was ever granted permission. And, of course, there is talk of legal action.
But the end result here is correct.
This isn’t about on which side of the political spectrum you fall. If a phrase that when decoded meant “F--- Donald Trump” somehow became popular, that shouldn’t be part of an athletic sponsorship for NASCAR or any other sport, either. The presidential office should be respected, for one thing, but there’s also this: The inherent meanness in such a phrase demeans us all.
Sports get politicized, of course. They don’t exist in a vacuum. Novak Djokovic’s attempted vaccine exemption to enter tennis’s Australian Open is only the latest of many examples.
But if Djokovic doesn’t get to play in the tournament — or if he does but still holds a grudge — should he be allowed to wear a shirt while playing that reads “F--- vaccine mandates”? Of course not. The idea of it is ludicrous.
NASCAR, though, is the sport where Black driver Wendell Scott won a race in 1963 but was wrongly deprived of the trophy for that race until 2021, when his family finally received it on the late driver’s behalf. It took 58 years between Scott’s victory in 1963 until another Black driver won a race at NASCAR’s highest level — Bubba Wallace in 2021.
NASCAR has a checkered history, and I’m not talking about its flags (it banned the Confederate one from its racetracks, but not until June 2020). NASCAR has generally been very white, very male, very conservative and very behind whatever times it happens to be in.
But NASCAR’s president, Steve Phelps, is trying to change that.
“We do not want to associate ourselves with politics, the left or the right,” he said in his “state of the sport” press conference in November.
Exactly. If drivers want to support a certain political candidate on their own time, they should be allowed to do that. But to adopt a catchphrase that euphemistically tells the sitting president to “F---” himself just to make money? That’s ridiculous.
The “Let’s Go Brandon” phrase sprung up at a NASCAR race in Talladega in October. After Brown won a race — his first ever in the Xfinity Series in 114 tries — an NBC Sports reporter interviewing him suggested that fans were chanting “Let’s Go Brandon.” The crowd was actually yelling: “F--- Joe Biden.”
As Phelps said of the phrase in November: “I think it’s an unfortunate situation. Do we like the fact that it kind of started with NASCAR and then is gaining ground elsewhere? No, we’re not happy about that.”
NASCAR faces another dilemma here with the “Let’s Go Brandon” controversy. As media columnist Ben Smith wrote in The New York Times: “NASCAR is trying to appeal to a younger and more diverse new generation of fans and to hang on as a cultural hub of the conservative white South.”
I believe all political slogans should be kept off race cars. NASCAR should ban cars that support political campaigns for candidates, such as the “Trump 2020” car once driven by Corey LaJoie and paid for by a political action committee, just as it should ban references to “Let’s Go Brandon.” (And the phrase is ubiquitous. Around Charlotte, I’ve seen it on bumper stickers, flags and yard signs next to people’s mailboxes).
Brown revealed his partnership with LGBCoin, a cryptocurrency company whose first three letters are a reference to the phrase, on Dec. 30.
It didn’t take long for NASCAR to inform Brown’s Xfinity racing team that the sponsorship would be denied. This should be a relief to Brown. He told The New York Times in mid-December: “I have zero desire to be involved in politics.”
At some point after that, though, his race team leaned into what would be a very political sponsorship. NASCAR has correctly nixed that idea.
I do hope Brown finds a sponsor. He doesn’t have backing from a big corporation or race team. Like so many in the sport’s minor leagues — the Xfinity division is equivalent to Triple-A baseball — he needs sponsorship money to survive and might not be able to field a car in 2022 without this deal. The 28-year-old driver got tossed into the middle of a political maelstrom through no fault of his own when he was just trying to celebrate a win. Phelps said “I feel for Brandon,” and I agree. Brown didn’t ask for all this. He just wanted to celebrate his victory.
But Brown also shouldn’t be allowed to have this particular sponsor, nor anything similar to it.
The world needs a lot of things. But one thing it doesn’t need is a race car taking left turns at 150 mph, sending a middle finger on every lap to the sitting president.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 6:14 PM.
