By Jerry Jordan, Editor
AVONDALE, Ariz. – Even though NASCAR is assuredly moving to a different championship format – eliminating the one-race champion – the likelihood of ever returning to a single Cup Series entitlement sponsor isn’t in the cards, especially after adding a new premier sponsor and the possibility of another in the future.
Asked about a scenario in which the sport could ever again have a Monster Energy Cup Series, Sprint Cup Series, Nextel Cup Series or Winston Cup Series entitlement, NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps said no.
“I don’t foresee a day where we would go back to having a single brand for our Cup Series,” Phelps told Kickin’ the Tires. “I think financially and promotionally it’s very strong, back to the Winston days, then NEXTEL, Sprint, Monster.
“But it also provided or inhibited the number of folks that wanted to promote the Cup Series,” he said. “So I don’t envision a time when we would go back to a single partner.”
Some of the problems NASCAR had with the single entitlement sponsorship dealt with exclusivity issues that affected financial partnerships for several teams.
For example, during the Nextel/Sprint era that ran from 2004 to 2016, AT&T, Cingular, Verizon and Alltel were prohibited from any expanded sponsorships. Cingular was the sponsor of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driven by Jeff Burton. The company, which was wholly owned by AT&T, ended up in federal court when the brand was changed to AT&T.
Although it wasn’t directly stated at the time, in December 2019, with the departure of Monster Energy as the entitlement sponsor for the Cup Series, NASCAR announced it was moving to the “premier partners” platform. That eliminated the conflicts that previously prevented teams from having sponsors that competed against the series entitlement sponsor.
Initially, NASCAR hoped to have five premier partners but only four were announced – Coca-Cola, Geico, Busch Beer and Xfinity ahead of the championship banquet in 2019. The premier partner program went into effect in 2020. Since then, Geico ended its premier partner involvement at the end of the 2024 season and NASCAR completed the 2025 season with the three remaining premier partners.
However, shortly before Phelps held the annual “State of the Sport” press conference with NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell, Freeway Insurance was named as the fourth premier partner, joining Coca-Cola, Busch Beer and Xfinity.
“The one thing I want to talk about before I turn it over to Steve (O’Donnell) is momentum,” Phelps said. “I think this sport has a lot of momentum at this particular point in a lot of different areas.
“One, we just heard the Freeway Insurance announcement, being our fourth Premier Partner. A big shout-out to Cesar and his entire team. We’re thrilled he’s back with Daniel. We’re thrilled they’re going to expand the relationship to include a race entitlement as well as being our fourth Premier Partner, joining Coke, Busch Light and Xfinity. It goes way past that. If you think about where sponsorship lives today versus where we were three, four, five years ago, if you ask our race teams, probably the best number of sponsors on cars that they’ve had in probably 15 years as we head into the 2026 season.”
From Phelps’ comments, it appears NASCSAR may be working on a fifth company to finally fill the additional premier partner spot.
“Could we expand to five premier partners? Potentially,” Phelps said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”