NASCAR Driver Brandon Brown Isn’t a Fan of the Let’s Go Brandon Meme: ‘I Have Zero Desire to Be Involved in Politics’

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.

NASCAR driver Brandon Brown isn’t a fan of the “Let’s Go Brandon” meme that bears his name, telling New York Times media columnist Ben Smith that he has “zero desire to be involved in politics.”

In his latest column, titled “Brandon Just Wants to Drive His Racecar,” Smith chatted with Brown about his inadvertent political infamy, which arose when an NBC sports reporter misheard the crowd chants after the 28-year-old driver won his first NASCAR victory at Talladega Superspeedway in October, thinking “F*ck Joe Biden” was actually “Let’s Go Brandon.” Since then, the euphemism has been embraced by trolling conservatives; Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) PAC even started selling t-shirts with the phrase.

In that post-race interview, Brown is effusively happy, proud to be able to “take the trophy home to mom and dad.” It’s a wholesome moment — and a sharp contrast to the expletive phrase the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant represents.

As Smith noted, Brown didn’t initially hear the chant or realize he had become a meme until he checked Twitter. His first impression was that it was “kind of funny,” wrote Smith, and he posted a few tweets joking about it himself.

To all the other Brandon’s out there, You’re welcome!
Let’s go us

— Brandon Brown (@brandonbrown_68) October 6, 2021

However, as the phrase went viral, Brown grew concerned.

“[P]olitics can be hazardous to your ability to make money,” Smith described the problem.”Now Mr. Brown finds himself facing a threat to his vocation: He’s an athlete on the cusp of breaking out in a sport that relies on corporate sponsors, a group that likes nothing less than the whiff of divisive partisanship.”

Brown noted that as a NASCAR driver, he sought “to appeal to everybody, because, all in all, everybody is a consumer,” adding, “I have zero desire to be involved in politics.”

A spokesman for Brown’s racing team reached out to Smith after they realized that “waiting out the storm wasn’t working,” wrote Smith, and “his silence on the matter seemed to be a political statement.”

Brown told Smith that he is hoping to turn the phrase into something more positive and “productive,” suggesting a new slogan of “Let’s Go, America!”

Smith took a few loops on the racetrack with Brown at the wheel before their interview, and recounted fighting back nausea as they rounded the turns. He likened Brown’s comfort with the harrowing physics of racing with his own “confrontational” interview style, and ended the column by voicing respect for Brown and his thoughtful answers on “subjects he’s never really thought about.”

He ended up cutting the interview short because “[i]t just didn’t seem fair.”

“I found myself thinking that I would prefer to live in a country that permits racecar drivers, actors and musicians to avoid being grilled by people like me, and I made a quick exit,” Smith concluded.

Read the column at The New York Times.