Brandon Brown (racing driver)

Brandon Brown
Brown at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August 2021
Born	Brandon L. Brown (1993-09-14) September 14, 1993 (age 28) Woodbridge, Virginia
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
119 races run over 6 years
Car no., team	No. 68 (Brandonbilt Motorsports)
2021 position	16th
Best finish	11th (2020)
First race	2016 Virginia 529 College Savings 250 (Richmond)
Last race	2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race (Phoenix)
First win	2021 Sparks 300 (Talladega)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 16 0
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
22 races run over 4 years
2017 position	97th
Best finish	25th (2016)
First race	2014 American Ethanol 200 (Iowa)
Last race	2017 Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (Martinsville)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0
Statistics current as of December 26, 2021.

Brandon L. Brown^[1] (born September 14, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 68 Chevrolet Camaro for Brandonbilt Motorsports.

Racing career[]

Early career[]

Brown first started racing when he was ten, driving go-karts at before moving to dirt track racing, winning the 2006 World Karting Association Mid-South Region Jr. championship. Two years later, he won the Jr. Restricted Light and Heavy Division championships, followed by the and Jr. Restricted Light and Heavy Division championships in 2009.^[2] In 2010, Brown began competing in the Whelen All-American Series with family-owned Brandonbilt Motorsports,^[3] winning a race and eventually the Virginia Rookie of the Year Award.^[2] The next year, he won three races at Old Dominion Speedway.^[4]

NASCAR[]

In 2014, Brown made his Camping World Truck Series debut at Iowa Speedway,^[4] finishing 25th after starting 27th.^[5] He made two more starts in the year, with a best finish of 19th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.^[6]

The following year, he attempted eight races but failed to qualify for three. After starting the season with a 29th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway,^[7] he ended the year with a best finish of 14th at Dover International Speedway.^[6]

In the 2016 season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Brown finished a career-best fourth place.^[8] Brown made his Xfinity Series debut at his home track of Richmond International Raceway in September 2016. Brown increased his Xfinity Series schedule in 2017, with intentions of running ten races in addition to select Truck races.^[9]

After driving a full-time Xfinity Series schedule in 2019 for 2 teams, Brown drove the No. 68 Chevrolet for Brandonbilt Motorsports the following year. He made his first appearance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, finishing 12th in the regular-season standings, but was eliminated following the first round.^[10]

In 2021, Brown tied his best career finish with a sixth at Daytona,^[11] followed by an eighth-place finish at the Daytona Road Course.^[12] He improved on his best finish at Phoenix when he finished third after various leaders were forced into the wall on an overtime restart.

At the Sparks 300 at Talladega in October 2021, Brown was in contention throughout the latter part of the race after escaping the first big wreck that took place on lap 88. As the race started late in the day because of the Truck race that was completed just earlier, there was a chance that the race would be called early if another caution had come out as it was starting to get dark. With a push from behind, Brown, who was not in the playoffs, was able to narrowly get ahead of Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier in time when the final caution of the race came out with 13 to go due to another big crash. The race was ultimately called with five laps to go due to darkness, and Brown would score his first career Xfinity Series win in his 114th start.^[13]

Sponsorships[]

Coastal Carolina University served as a primary sponsor on Brown's truck and Xfinity car during the early part of his career.^[9][14]

When his team was struggling to find sponsorship during the 2021 season, Brown made a Twitter video in June 2021, dressing up as a 'used car salesman' in an attempt to promote his team and find available sponsors for upcoming races.^[15] The video paid off as Brandonbilt Motorsports announced they had secured enough sponsorship, including one from cryptocurrency company TradeTheChain.com, to finish off the rest of the season.^[16]

"Let's Go Brandon"[]

After his first win at Talladega, Brown was being interviewed at the start-finish line by NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast, when some in the crowd began to chant "Fuck Joe Biden."^[17] Stavast, who may have misheard the chant,^[18][19] stated, "You can hear the chants from the crowd, 'Let's go, Brandon!'"^[20]

This gave rise to the political slogan "Let's Go Brandon" as a minced oath against Biden. Brown initially responded to the new political slogan with the lighthearted tweet, "To all the other Brandons out there, You're welcome! Let's go us".^[21] However, he was privately ambivalent about the phrase, because it overshadowed his Talladega win and threatened to scare off corporate sponsors, who were leery of controversy.^[22] His plan originally was to simply ignore the phrase, but as several months passed and it remained in widespread use, he worried that his silence was perceived as a tacit endorsement of the sentiment.^[22] Later that month, the Associated Press reported that Brown's Brandonbilt Motorsports team, which is family owned, was struggling to acquire sponsorship as companies were hesitant to support him due to his indirect association with the chant and its political undertones.^[23][24]

In December 2021, he broke his silence on the matter in an interview with The New York Times in which he stated that, though he was a Republican, he wanted "to appeal to everybody" and had "zero desire to be involved in politics". Brown expressed his wishes for the slogan to instead be used in a positive context.^[22] He also published an op-ed in Newsweek, in which he took a more mixed stance, stating that he was "not going to endorse anyone", but that he was "not going to hesitate to speak about issues I am passionate about, or the problems we face together as Americans".^[25]

Personal life[]

Brown graduated from Coastal Carolina University in 2018 with a degree in communication;^[26] he was also a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.^[2] The school serves as a primary sponsor on Brown's truck and Xfinity car.^[9][27]

His father and team owner, Jerry Brown, underwent "aggressive" treatment for cancer after being diagnosed during a routine check-up on April 7, 2020.^[28] He revealed that his father was cancer-free on August 26 after a five month battle.^[29]

Motorsports career results[]

NASCAR[]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series[]

NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	NXSC	Pts	Ref
2016	Brandonbilt Motorsports	86	Chevy	DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI	RCH	TAL	DOV	CLT	POC	MCH	IOW	DAY	KEN	NHA	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR	RCH 29	CHI	KEN	DOV	CLT	KAN 25	TEX	PHO	HOM 23	117th	01	[30]
2017		90		DAY	ATL 23	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI	RCH 25	TAL	CLT	DOV 17	POC	MCH 33	IOW	DAY 37	KEN DNQ	NHA	IND	IOW 29	GLN	MOH	BRI 25	ROA	DAR 20	RCH 27	CHI	KEN	DOV 25	CLT	KAN	TEX	PHO	HOM	36th	110	[31]
2018		86		DAY 36	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI																										HOM 24	42nd	94	[32]
		90									RCH 19	TAL	DOV 28	CLT	POC	MCH	IOW	CHI	DAY	KEN	NHA	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR 18	IND	LVS	RCH	CLT	DOV 22	KAN	TEX 18	PHO
2019		86		DAY 18	ATL 13	LVS 17	PHO 15	CAL 15	TEX 17	BRI 23		TAL 15	DOV 13		POC 13	MCH 26	IOW 31	CHI 22	DAY 6	KEN 17	NHA 16	IOW 27	GLN 18		BRI 12	ROA 37	DAR 33	IND 28	LVS 16	RCH 34		DOV 11	KAN 18	TEX 25	PHO 20		15th	574	[33]
	RSS Racing	93	Chevy								RCH 20
	Brandonbilt Motorsports	68	Chevy											CLT 20										MOH 24							CLT 17					HOM 13
2020				DAY 7	LVS 11	CAL 33	PHO 12	DAR 13	CLT 8	BRI 7	ATL 12	HOM 14	HOM 36	TAL 11	POC 33	IND 11	KEN 27	KEN 13	TEX 10	KAN 11	ROA 12	DAY 34	DOV 14	DOV 16	DAY 26	DAR 17	RCH 18	RCH 11	BRI 12	LVS 15	TAL 9	CLT 26	KAN 13	TEX 5	MAR 18	PHO 12	11th	2170	[34]
2021				DAY 6	DAY 8	HOM 34	LVS 11	PHO 3	ATL 33	MAR 27	TAL 7	DAR 24	DOV 10	COA 26	CLT 4	MOH 6	TEX 13	NSH 35	POC 15	ROA 11	ATL 31	NHA 17	GLN 12	IND 34	MCH 40	DAY 34	DAR 28	RCH 8	BRI 14	LVS 22	TAL 1	CLT 22	TEX 33	KAN 14	MAR 36	PHO 20	16th	620	[35]

Camping World Truck Series[]

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	NCWTC	Pts	Ref
2014	Brandonbilt Motorsports	86	Chevy	DAY	MAR	KAN	CLT	DOV	TEX	GTW	KEN	IOW 25	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI	NHA 19	LVS	TAL	MAR 24	TEX	PHO	HOM		46th	64	[36]
2015				DAY	ATL 29	MAR DNQ	KAN	CLT DNQ	DOV 14	TEX	GTW	IOW	KEN 25	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI	NHA 27	LVS	TAL	MAR DNQ	TEX	PHO	HOM 32	39th	93	[37]
2016				DAY 4	ATL 19	MAR 14	KAN 12	DOV 31	CLT 26	TEX	IOW 24		KEN 20	ELD 22	POC 24	BRI 23	MCH	MSP	CHI	NHA	LVS	TAL 25	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM	25th	153	[38]
	MAKE Motorsports											GTW 32
2017	Martins Motorsports	44	Chevy	DAY DNQ	ATL	MAR 27	KAN																				97th	01	[39]
	Brandonbilt Motorsports	86	Chevy					CLT DNQ	DOV	TEX	GTW	IOW	KEN	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Brandon Brown driver statistics at Racing-Reference