# NASCAR new logo (2016)

> NASCAR launched a new logo in Dec 2016. 19 Dec 2016: coloured-bar mark with red/blue-outlined NASCAR wordmark replaced by a flatter four-bar mark and solid black italic NASCAR wordmark.

## Key facts

- Brand: NASCAR
- Launched: Dec 2016
- What changed: 19 Dec 2016: coloured-bar mark with red/blue-outlined NASCAR wordmark replaced by a flatter four-bar mark and solid black italic NASCAR wordmark.
- Why: NASCAR used its search for a new title sponsor as an opportunity to modernise and streamline its identity.
- Industry: Sport
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/nascar-2016/before.svg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/nascar-2016/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

NASCAR's bar mark, coloured slashes beside an outlined wordmark, had represented the sanctioning body since 1976. In 2016 the sport was hunting for a new title sponsor for its premier series, and chief marketing officer Jill Gregory saw the search as a parallel opportunity to modernise the whole identity. She told Autoweek nobody had argued the old logo had to change; the chance simply arose to streamline it.

Work started in early 2016. Gregory and Peter Jung, managing director of brand and consumer marketing, worked with an outside design studio. Jung said the team explored many directions, including dramatic ones, as due diligence, but ended up cleaning up the mark and paying homage to its history.

The new logo drops the multicoloured backdrop but keeps the yellow, red and blue slants to the left of a modified, solid NASCAR wordmark. The official release said it was designed to include a piece of each of the four previous marks used since NASCAR's first season in 1948, and Gregory called it modern, timeless and respectful of the original's unique qualities.

It was unveiled on 19 December 2016 across NASCAR's social and digital channels, together with the new name, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, from 1 January 2017. Gregory insisted the two were never directly linked and that sponsor finalists did not get their own versions. Autoweek noted that fans notoriously reluctant to change received it well.

Autoweek reported that the bar mark had gone nearly four decades untouched, and that chief marketing officer Jill Gregory approached the update with both respect and hesitation. She said there was never a scenario in which the old logo had to change; the search for a new title sponsor, which brought in Monster Energy, simply created a parallel opportunity to streamline the identity. The result is a minimalist version of what came before. That framing is honest: this was a modernisation of convenience rather than necessity, timed to a commercial reset.

That reception is the verdict. This is a model of how to update a beloved sports mark: remove the clutter, keep the speed, touch nothing fans actually love. It is restrained to the point of near-invisibility, which, for NASCAR's audience, was exactly the brief.

In short: The same speed, without the clutter.

## Sources

- https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2016/12/19/nascar-reveals-new-brand-identity-premier-series-name-and-logo/
- https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nascar/a1818351/nascars-new-logo-pays-homage-series-rich-history/
- https://rare.design/portfolio_page/nascar/

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "NASCAR new logo (2016)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/nascar-2016/, last updated 2026-10-20.