NASCAR: What many don’t know about ‘Let’s go Brandon’

A surprise Xfinity Series winner during NASCAR’s most recent trip Talladega Superspeedway led to a viral meme that hasn’t slowed down.

You don’t need to be a NASCAR fan to understand and appreciate the “Let’s go Brandon” meme that has gone viral over the last six and a half months or so.

If you’re somehow still unfamiliar with the phrase, here’s the TL; DR version (full story available here).

It originated after a three-word, politically driven NSFW chant (“F— Joe Biden”) was heard from Talladega Superspeedway race fans during Brandon Brown’s post-race victory interview on the frontstretch.

Despite the obviousness of what was being said, especially considering the fact that this particular chant had become quite popular among college football crowds in the weeks leading up to this race, NBC Sports viewers were told that the “FJB” chant from the crowd was really a chant of “Let’s go Brandon”.

And so “Let’s go Brandon” predictably turned into a viral political meme.

Over the last several months, the phrase has become a go-to phrase in heated political discussions and has appeared on t-shirts. “Let’s go Brandon” stores have also started popping up.

The name “Brandon” has become synonymous with the name which was actually being used in the original chant, and someone even posted a “Let’s go” sign above a road sign leading to the town of Brandon, Minnesota. The name has also been frequently spotted alongside “Regular 87” and “Plus 89”, if you know what I mean.

It has absolutely nothing with Brandon Brown — much like the actual chant, which makes the whole thing even more bizarre.

In fact, I’d venture to guess that an overwhelming majority of people saying it have, to this day, absolutely no clue who Brandon Brown is. And as crazy as it sounds, that doesn’t take away from the message being delivered.

What is even more ironic though is the fact that we still might have something of a meme on our hands had the 28-year-old Woodbridge, Virginia native not been the winner of that race.

What many don’t realize — even among those who actually know the meme originated with NASCAR — is that Brandon actually finished the race in second place as well.

When the 113-lap was shortened to 107 laps due to darkness at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama, Brandon Brown was the race leader ahead of Brandon Jones in second place.

So we very well could be hearing about a different Brandon right now had things played out slightly differently. Not surprisingly, he did get some “Let’s go Brandon” cheers after winning at Martinsville Speedway two weeks ago.

And the weirdness of it all doesn’t quite stop there.

While there were no more Brandons in the running order, the next four drivers in the order (from third to sixth place) all have two-syllable names as well: Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric, Jordan Anderson and Justin Haley. Austin Cindric finished in eighth, with Ryan Sieg in 11th.

So if the race had run the full distance, perhaps right now we are staring at a “Let’s go Justin!” meme, a “Let’s go Daniel!” meme, a “Let’s go Jordan!” meme, a “Let’s go Austin!” meme or a “Let’s go Ryan!” meme.

With that being said, “Brandon” definitely sounds a lot closer to the two-syllable name in question than any of those others do, though you could make a case for “Ryan” as well.

On a closing note, even with the 2021 season having ended and the 2022 season having gotten underway more than two months ago, don’t expect to stop hearing about Brandon anytime soon.

Brown is set to enter this Saturday afternoon’s Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway as the reigning winner at the track. This race, the Ag-Pro 300, is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET. If you have not yet started a free trial of FuboTV, do that now and don’t miss the action!