To Celebrate 75 Years, Nascar looks in the Rearview Mirror

With the upcoming racing season marking its 75th anniversary, Nascar is both celebrating its past with a new throwback logo and innovating for the future. Racing fans will find a lot to appreciate amid the design elements of the new logo. The overall oval shape is reminiscent of a racetrack and was inspired by the brand's second logo introduced in 1956. The diamond in the center has five stripes representing the five different logos throughout Nascar history. They also reference racing stripes, while the colors were derived from the previous logos' primary hues (red in the 1948 logo, yellow in 1956 and blue in 1964). The font is proprietary, developed by Nascar during its 2017 identity refresh. Known as “Big Bill,” the font was named after Bill France Sr., who founded the sport in Daytona Beach in 1948. Nascar's first four logos in its brand history before its fifth update in 2017. "As much as it is a reflection of the fairly unique and rich history of our past, we really want it to be symbolic of where we are today as a sport and as a brand, and where we expect it to go in the future," Nascar chief marketing officer Peter Jung told Adweek. The new logo was designed with the help of Mississippi-based agency, Rare, which previously collaborated with Nascar in 2017 on the brand's fifth and current logo. Racing toward something new Jung said Nascar has bullish and ambitious expectations for growth. The brand has explored different projects in the digital space such as Zed Run, an NFT horse racing game, and esports with its eNascar iRacing series. On the track, the brand has evolved too. The 2023 Nascar Cup series will begin in early February with the Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum in Los Angeles. Last year, Nascar built a temporary track on top of the football field in the Coliseum to bring racing to downtown Los Angeles for the first time ever. The stunt worked: 70% of the ticket buyers were attending their first-ever Nascar race, according to Jung. And Downtown Chicago will host the Nascar Chicago Cup Series street course race in early July 2023. "This is the first time we're ever doing this," Jung said. "We're going to do it in a way that's unique and genuine to Nascar racing but also the experience. Brand communication and identity are the two most important things to us." The diamond's five stripes represent the different Nascar logos the brand has created in its history. 'You can't run from your past' Nascar's marking of time comes with some challenges. For one, it's highlighting a history that had little focus on inclusion while at the same time trying move forward with a focus on DEI. Earlier this year, the brand found itself embroiled in controversy over a partnership between one of its drivers, Brandon Brown, and cryptocurrency meme coin LGBCoin, an abbreviation for the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant used to disparage President Joe Biden. Nascar killed the sponsorship deal amid an ongoing stance of being more inclusive and trying to reach a more diverse audience over the past several years. This includes banning the Confederate flag from races in 2020. Are Brands’ DEI Initiatives Keeping Up With Culture? "You can't run from your past, and part of this is the 75-year story for the brand as well as the present and the future," Jung said. "I wouldn't say that [DEI] was a driver of the strategy or the design. It represents the future of the sport and our expectations, and that's what we wanted to represent to all audiences." Nascar is promoting the logo update on television during NBC's broadcast of the Nascar Cup Series regular-season finale race at Daytona International Speedway on Aug. 27. When the brand celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998, it created a list of the 50 best drivers in its history. The brand will again recognize some of the most significant competitors, contributors and moments in the sport’s history as part of the 75th celebration. Nascar's commemorative set of logos were designed by Rare.