What is the NASCAR Winston Cup series called now
Executive summary
The NASCAR Winston Cup Series is now called the NASCAR Cup Series, a non‑branded title reflecting current sponsorship arrangements and NASCAR’s shift away from a single title sponsor [1] [2]. The premier series has carried multiple sponsored names since Winston’s exit in 2003—Nextel, Sprint, Monster Energy—and today the organization markets the top tour simply as the NASCAR Cup Series with a group of “Premier Partners” rather than one title sponsor [3] [1] [4] [5].
1. What the series is called today and how that name is used
As of recent seasons the official name is the NASCAR Cup Series, the umbrella title NASCAR uses for its top national tour rather than a sponsor‑branded name, and the NASCAR homepage and season materials refer to the competition under that name [2] [6]. This designation follows a multi‑decade pattern in which the series name has alternated between a sponsor‑centric label and a generic Cup label, with the current practice favoring “NASCAR Cup Series” plus multiple premier partners rather than a single title sponsor [1] [5].
2. A brief lineage: Winston to Nextel to Sprint to Monster Energy to Cup
The Winston Cup era ran from 1971 through the 2003 season when R.J. Reynolds’ Winston brand was the series’ title sponsor, after which NASCAR negotiated a new naming rights deal that led to the Nextel Cup beginning in 2004 [7] [1]. Subsequent title sponsorships produced the Nextel Cup (2004–2007), the Sprint Cup (2008–2016) and a period when Monster Energy carried prominent branding, and statistical and historical records reflect these successive names as iterations of the same top series [3] [4].
3. Why the Winston name ended and the logic behind later changes
R.J. Reynolds ended its title sponsorship at the conclusion of the 2003 season, a decision that pushed NASCAR to secure a telecommunications company, Nextel, as the next sponsor and began an era of corporate title swaps rather than a single long‑term naming arrangement [1]. Over time, shifts in advertising norms, corporate marketing strategies and NASCAR’s own commercial structure produced further changes in branding, culminating in NASCAR’s decision to present the series under the generic “Cup” label while engaging multiple premier partners instead of one title sponsor [1] [5].
4. What the move to “Cup Series” means commercially and for fans
Using the neutral “NASCAR Cup Series” label allows NASCAR to showcase a portfolio of corporate partners—such as beverage, insurance and media brands—without renaming the entire championship every time a title sponsor deal changes, a model described in NASCAR’s own materials and recent reporting about premier partners [2] [5]. That approach reduces the churn of historic naming conventions in public discourse and creates continuity in record books even as commercial partnerships evolve [3] [5].
5. Alternate claims and contested narratives about returning to ‘Winston’
Some third‑party outlets and fan pages have suggested or repeated claims that NASCAR announced intentions to “return to its original name of the Winston Cup Series,” a statement found in at least one online history piece, but that claim is not corroborated by the official NASCAR sources compiled here and sits outside mainstream reporting about the current Cup branding [8]. The dominant, widely documented narrative across NASCAR’s official pages and major sports outlets is that the series presently operates as the NASCAR Cup Series, reflecting the league’s commercial strategy since the Monster Energy and Sprint sponsorship eras [2] [4] [3].
6. Bottom line
The historic “Winston Cup” name refers to the era from 1971–2003 when R.J. Reynolds’ Winston brand held title sponsorship, but today the top level of NASCAR racing is called the NASCAR Cup Series, a non‑sponsor‑branded designation supported by multiple premier partners rather than a single corporate title sponsor [7] [1] [5].