NASCAR President Steve Phelps says the organization is steering away from the “Let’s go Brandon” chant and will pursue legal action against any entity using its trademark on merchandise that contains the slogan.
“We will pursue whoever (is using logos) and get that stuff,” Phelps said on Friday, reports Deadline.
“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.”
The phrase, used to ridicule or insult President Joe Biden, got its start at a NASCAR event when an NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast was interviewing driver Brandon Brown at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama last month.
The crowd near her started chanting “F*** Joe Biden,” and she either misheard it or changed the topic, telling Brown the crowd was chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” for him.
After that, Biden opponents nationally started saying “Let’s go, Brandon” when they mean the obscenity about Biden, and Phelps said Friday it’s an “unfortunate situation.”
“I feel for Brandon, I feel for Kelli,” Phelps said. “I think, unfortunately, it speaks to the state of where we are as a country. We do not want to associate ourselves with politics, the left or the right.”
NASCAR, though, has associated itself with both sides of the fence in recent years. Former President Donald Trump was named the honorary starter for the 2020 Daytona 500, where fans overwhelmingly welcomed him.
Further, NASCAR drivers have been known to speak at some of Trump’s rallies.
NASCAR last year started banning people from having Confederate flags, a frequent sight at its events and came under fire after insisting that a noose that had been found in driver Bubba Wallace’s Talladega stall was a racial attack against him because he is NASCAR’s only Black driver.
When I think, see or hear LGB! I don’t think NASCAR.
Will NASCAR ever assess the damage its corporate sponsors do to health and
the environment? Probably not, so long as the $$ keeps rolling in.
President Steve Phelps kiss the lefts starfish good buddy
Getting snappy with trademark infringement? NASCAR putting the hammer down?
Yet your racers (when angry…whoa is meeee) can say how they feel (George Carlins 7 words you can’t say and societial slurs) on national TV and its ok
Yet LETS GO BRANDON is soooooooooooooooooo bad and vile.
Now your champion is the same person who a year ago got tarred and feathers over a bad slur. Forgiveness was granted – NASCAR wouldn’t talk about him the first couple of races in 2021, then he started to WIN…and WIN…and WIN…and WIN…..10 times he won and the Championship. He is now NASCARs chosen one…until he slips up. We all are human and slip from time to time.
Yet Lets Go Brandon (not any of the 7 words AND not a slur) is the devil…and slapping it with copyright infringements….
Pound sand NASCRAP.
Well, there’s nothing he can do about it except help vote democrats out next election.
Well NASCAR’s dying so there’s that.