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NASCAR driver Matt DiBenedetto has posted a nearly four-minute Instagram video that apparently is meant as an apology of sorts for saying “Let’s go Brandon” as he climbed into his vehicle before a race over the weekend.
Conservative influencer Benny Johnson shared a video clip (see below) on Twitter of DiBenedetto enthusiastically articulating the LGB slogan (that the latter retweeted), and when asked about this afterwards, the driver explained that it was because “I pray for God, country, and freedom, that’s why.”
Johnson’s tweet prompted a negative response from woke social media (although one dissenter observed, “But if he said F-Trump, y’all would be praising him.”)
NASCAR Superstar @mattdracing: LETS GO BRANDON! pic.twitter.com/w7eJhplzh2
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 7, 2021
DiBenedetto is seen below offering his initial explanation as to why he repeated the popular phrase that has swept the country and is often heard at outdoor sporting events.
NASCAR SUPERSTAR ⭐MATT DIBENEDETTO!! "LET'S GO BRANDON!"🤣 pic.twitter.com/EWF3FJwXzq
— JamieLynn_TrumpGrl💋 (@2jamielynn) November 7, 2021
Perhaps because of the online disapproval, a somber and apparently “guilt-ridden” DiBenedetto, who is not under contract as yet for 2022, subsequently posted a seemingly nonspecific mea culpa to his approximately 110,000 followers on Instagram and about 70,000 fans on Facebook:
“I let my anger for things going on…get the best of me…It went against everything that I — again I passionately believe in those things — but I didn’t deliver it the right way. And shame on me…
“I deserve whatever loss of respect I get from some people, but I’m just going to be vulnerable and pull the band-aid here and get that out because I had a lot of guilt weighed on me and for good, good reason,” the NASCAR star, 30, said, in part.
Watch and draw your own conclusions:
View this post on Instagram
DiBenedetto’s soliloquy comes as NASCAR as an organization seeks to distance itself from the anti-Biden chant, which is a completely peaceful protest.
NASCAR chief Steve Phelps noted that the country’s top motorsports franchise is not interested in being associated with political issues or parties “on the left or the right.”
NASCAR has also warned of legal action against anyone tying the LGB phrase to any NASCAR-trademarked swag.
NASCAR moves to distance from ‘Let’s go, Brandon’ chant, threatens action over logo use https://t.co/O1QFUjtrow
— Jack Furnari (@JackBPR) November 6, 2021
The PG-13 “Let’s go Brandon” meme became instantly popular with critics of the incumbent president, especially during sports events, after an NBC Sports reporter last month appeared to misunderstand what was being shouted in the stands following a NASCAR race at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway when she was interviewing the winner, Brandon Brown.
The crowd was chanting “F**k Joe Biden,” but she apparently mistook it for “Let’s go Brandon!” The rest is history.
With what seems perhaps to be a liberal spin on the situation, Yahoo Sports sized up DiBenedetto’s predicament about embracing what the news outlet described as a “right-wing euphemism”:
DiBenedetto’s actions made very little sense in the wake of Phelps’ comments. While DiBenedetto is absolutely entitled to his own political views, his expression of those views through a slogan that NASCAR said it wanted nothing to do with was a curious choice for someone desperate to find a job in NASCAR next season.
It doesn’t seem like the best idea to risk ticking off the people in charge of the sports series that you’re trying to find a job in. DiBenedetto might have realized that after the fact. Sunday was DiBenedetto’s final race in the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing and he has no job lined up for next season…
After his actions over the weekend, DiBenedetto is now in a position to learn about actions and consequences firsthand. In a league where jobs are so heavily reliant on sponsorship dollars, DiBenedetto’s quest to find a good ride in 2022 could have gotten even tougher.
Before this controversy emerged, DiBenedetto perhaps prophetically asserted on Twitter, “I feel like living on planet Earth in 2021 is permanent sensitivity training.”
I feel like living on planet Earth in 2021 is permanent sensitivity training 😂 https://t.co/GTuDGQLCos
— Matt DiBenedetto (@mattdracing) November 2, 2021
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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”
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