CHARLOTTE, NC - MAY 27: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Red White & Blue Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 27, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

The next big sponsor for NASCAR could be a company that is already very involved with the sport.

Come 2020, the sponsorship landscape for NASCAR is poised to change in a huge way. Monster Energy will no longer lend its name to the Cup Series, and NASCAR has signaled that its plan is for several companies to combine to fill the void — and one of them could very likely be Coca-Cola.

As reported by Adam Stern of SportsBusiness Journal (and passed along by Jayski), Coca-Cola is a “prime candidate” to be one of the businesses that will help usher in the post-Monster Energy NASCAR era.

Previous articles from various media outlets suggested that NASCAR would not seek one company to sponsor its top series for 2020 and beyond, and instead have a plan that increased exposure for one company at a time that would rotate every few races. Stern’s tweet definitely hints that this is still the plan.

https://twitter.com/A_S12/status/1008719064804614144

In other words, don’t expect it to be the Coca-Cola NASCAR Cup Series, but rather the NASCAR Cup Series presented by Coca-Cola, or something to that effect. After a month or two of racing, the sponsorship would rotate and a different company would pop up on signage, other assets and on TV broadcasts.

The fit between NASCAR and Coca-Cola is an obvious one, as the beverage company already sponsors two of the sport’s biggest races, the Coca-Cola 600 and the annual July stop at Daytona. On top of that, Coca-Cola has its “Family” of drivers that it supports at the team level, occasionally popping up as a primary sponsor for one of those teams like it did for Daniel Suarez earlier this season.

That being the case, it’s a smaller step up for Coca-Cola to be involved at the series level than it would be for many other companies, though any time a business wants to increase its participation in NASCAR is welcome news. This would be just the first of many dominoes that has to fall before NASCAR leadership can feel good about the bold new direction it is taking once Monster Energy leaves, but it would be a big enough one to offer some optimism over the next year and a half.