Beginning on Jan. 1, NASCAR’s top series will be called the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
NASCAR made the announcement on Monday in conjunction with the reveal of its first new logo since 1976.
Monster Energy was announced as the title sponsor on Dec. 1 after a lengthy search to find the replacement for Sprint. The sanctioning body keeps the trademark “Cup” that has been part of the series since 1971.
The Premier Series was called the Winston Cup from 1971 – 2003, the Nextel Cup from 2004 – 2007 and the Sprint Cup from 2008 through this past season.
“Our new NASCAR mark is modern, timeless, and embraces the heritage of our sport,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer in a press release. “It was important for us to recognize our history and implement a piece of each previous mark in the new design. Our goal was to evolve the sport’s visual identity to make it concise, relevant and functional, while respecting and maintaining the unique qualities of the original mark.”
Gregory later appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “SiriusXM Speedway” to discuss what went into the logo change and the new Premier Series name.
On keeping “Cup” in the series’ name:
“We thought long and hard about it, we obviously been going through this process for awhile to find the right partner and I think everyone we talked to had a different perspective and so it was just a matter of sitting down and figuring out what was good for NASCAR, what was good the industry and what’s good for Monster and what makes the most sense to make sure their entry as our top series sponsor was successful. Through all that we landed on keeping Cup, which showcases that they’ve got the top position in the series sponsorship category.”
On design of the NASCAR logo:
“We knew early in 2016 and even earlier than that we were going to be looking into a new series partner. We know that fans are interested in figuring out what companies are involved with NASCAR. We started looking at the “bar mark,” as we call it … But this was our chance, we knew we were going to have an opportunity (to change the logo) regardless of who the partner was, that doesn’t come around often. … This was a big change. We’ve had the same general NASCAR logo for 40 years. We did not take that lightly. We wanted to make sure we protect the heritage and consider the history and tradition that has made NASCAR great and also use this opportunity to freshen and modernize things.”
The announcements were made on all of NASCAR’s digital platforms shortly after 4 p.m. ET.