Busch Light goes from Kevin Harvick to Ross Chastain.
The beer brand announced on Tuesday that it will sponsor Chastain in 2024 following Harvick’s retirement at the end of 2023.
Anheuser-Busch is the latest beer company to have a significant presence in NASCAR after brands like Miller and Coors scaled back or dropped sponsorships entirely over the past two decades.
Anheuser-Busch products have been associated with Harvick since 2011, when he was at Richard Childress Racing. The company’s Budweiser brand switched to sponsor Harvick that season and joined him in 2014 when Harvick joined Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick won his first Cup Series title this season.
In 2016, the company announced that Busch and Busch Light would sponsor Harvick’s car instead of Budweiser.
Harvick announced ahead of the 2023 season that it would be his last at NASCAR’s top level before moving to Fox’s broadcast booth in 2024. AB’s contract with SHR aligned with the end of Harvick’s contract and the negotiations with Trackhouse to sponsor Chastain and the No. 1 car had been well known during the first half of the 2023 season.
Chastain has been NASCAR’s breakout driver since joining the team now known as the Trackhouse ahead of the 2021 season. Chastain has had three wins over the past two seasons and his wall-riding move to Martinsville there a season was one of the craziest NASCAR moments in recent memory.
That run from Martinsville put Chastain in NASCAR’s last four and gave him a shot at the 2022 Cup Series title. He finished second to Joey Logano at Phoenix to finish second in the points standings.
This season, Chastain is fifth in 19 races and earned his first win of the season in June at Nashville. Along with the move from Martinsville, he also became known for his aggressive driving that didn’t make too many friends on the track. Chastain had numerous matchups with Denny Hamlin during the 2022 season and Chase Elliott’s championship chances ended in Phoenix when he spun Chastain’s bumper on a restart.