Brandon Brown wanted a way to change the narrative behind the “Let’s go, Brandon” message after his first career NASCAR victory inadvertently fostered a chant that has been used to insult US President Joe Biden.
Brown found that new message thanks to the family of an eight-year-old boy with autism.
Brandon Brundidge of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, was on a spring-break trip to Houston in March when he saw signs with the “Let’s go, Brandon” phrase. He believed they were meant to encourage him, and consequently started trying activities he never attempted before, such as learning to swim and removing the training wheels from his bicycle.
Photo: AP
His mother, Sheletta Brundidge, used that story to write a children’s book titled, Brandon Spots His Sign. Brown had the cover of her book on the hood of his Camaro for his Xfinity Series race on Saturday at Road America.
“To have this come through was like that breakthrough moment for us,” Brown said. “This can be positive. This can be good. It doesn’t have to be hateful or divisive.”
The divisiveness started after Brown earned his first career NASCAR victory in October last year.
People at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama chanted “Fuck Joe Biden” during the winner’s post-race interview, but NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast incorrectly told Brown the fans were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.”
From that point, “Let’s go, Brandon,” became a rallying cry for Biden critics, with signs bearing that message popping up all over. Brown unintentionally found himself in the middle of the firestorm that surrounded the chants.
“I’ve just been hopeful that I could make it a positive, I could have my name back and not have it be so divisive and scary, where it wouldn’t be a political statement for my friends and family to cheer me on during a race,” Brown said.
That is where the Brundidge family stepped in.
Sheletta Brundidge is the mother of four children, and three of them have autism. She has written children’s books focusing on each of them.
She said that Brandon Brundidge often dealt with social anxiety, but that changed after he saw all the “Let’s go, Brandon” signs and assumed people were cheering him on. He suddenly had a whole new attitude and was not nearly as shy about trying new things.
“He literally wanted us to put flags in front of the house [saying] ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’” Sheletta Brundidge said. “I’m like: ‘That’s not going to happen. We’re not putting these flags in front of the house.’”
Brown learned about the book from his mother and invited the Brundidge family to Road America. They met in person for the first time on Saturday, and the two Brandons became fast friends.
“It feels like I have a twin brother, but who’s older than me,” Brandon Brundidge said.
The Brundidges gave out copies of Brandon Spots His Sign at Road America. The book’s cover design decorated Brown’s car, although he was knocked out of Saturday’s race after getting caught in a multicar wreck that caused him to get examined and released from the infield care center.
“I’m sorry for what you went through all of this past year,” Sheletta Brundidge told Brown on Saturday. “I know it’s been horrible, but I’m so glad it happened because this child would not have this breakthrough [otherwise]. He still would be afraid to ride his bike without training wheels. He’s literally walking up to kids and passing out this book. He would have never done that [before].”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier