RELATED: NASCAR reveals new brand identity

Combining a history that stretches more than 65 years with a future infused with a new premier series entitlement sponsor and a next generation of stars, NASCAR unveiled a new brand identity Monday via its social and digital media platforms.

In addition, NASCAR also unveiled the mark and name for its premier series, which will become the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series beginning in 2017.

The new brand identity — which replaces the familiar bar mark that had been in place since 1976 — uses the colors and feel of past marks, while modernizing it to fit with the new era the sanctioning body enters in 2017.

NASCAR began the process of designing a new mark early in 2016. It becomes the fifth mark in NASCAR history.

“Our new NASCAR mark is modern, timeless, and embraces the heritage of our sport,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “It was important for us to recognize our history and implement a piece of each previous mark in the new design. Our goal was to evolve the sport’s visual identity to make it concise, relevant and functional, while respecting and maintaining the unique qualities of the original mark.”

The new mark incorporates pieces of each of NASCAR’s previous marks, including the red, yellow and blue coloring from the first three marks, respectively, and the ‘racing bars’ that accompany the acronym ‘NASCAR’ from the prior iteration.

Monday’s announcement also ended the wait for the highly anticipated name of NASCAR’s premier series. NASCAR and Monster Energy announced a multi-year partnership on Dec. 1 in Las Vegas, one that made Monster Energy the entitlement sponsor of NASCAR’s top series, the title sponsor of the NASCAR All-Star Race and the Official Energy Drink of NASCAR.

The offseason gears of change are still churning at Stewart-Haas Racing with the customary preparations before the new season dawns. But the early plans for SHR this year go far beyond paint schemes and subtle aerodynamic tweaks, and even former NASCAR premier series champion Kevin Harvick has the mildest reservations about how smooth a transition it might be.

Harvick addressed Stewart-Haas Racing‘s switch from Chevrolet to Ford for 2017 on Thursday after a holiday shopping spree at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet in Matthews, North Carolina to help families displaced by fire. Harvick’s foundation partnered with the Charlotte Fire Department to host the charitable event for the second straight year.

While that relationship continues, Harvick’s long-running association with Chevy will end next season when he pilots SHR’s No. 4 Ford for the first time. The organization’s behind-the-scenes work to bring its four-car fleet under the blue oval banner has been extraordinary, and Harvick says he’s cautiously optimistic that the overhaul will go over largely without a hitch.

“I think we’d be crazy to think there’s not going to be some bumps in the road just because there’s a lot of things that are changing,” Harvick said. “But I think with the amount of people that we have to go through the transition and do the things that we need to do, I couldn’t ask for a better group of people. It’s a bunch of racers, and I think it’s going to be a long winter, but with a group of racers like we have, we should hopefully fire off where we have been.”

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The move, announced in February, means that Stewart-Haas Racing will no longer rely on an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports for chassis and engines. SHR will have its own in-house chassis developed for the 2017 season plus power from Roush Yates Engines.

“I’m sure that the big parts and pieces will have already had a plan to be adjusted right and we have a plan to work toward that,” Harvick said, “but I think it’ll be all the knickknack stuff that you don’t expect that you’ll probably have to spend the most time worrying about and coming up with a spur-of-the-moment plan. I think everybody’s got a great frame of mind at Stewart-Haas Racing because for us, it’s a huge opportunity to kind of step out of that box.”

RELATED: SHR moving to Ford in 2017

The manufacturer swap isn’t the only significant change coming to Stewart-Haas Racing next season. Clint Bowyer will step into the organization’s flagship No. 14 as the replacement for team co-owner Tony Stewart, who retired from full-time competition at the end of 2016.

The addition to the driver lineup will mark a reunion for both Bowyer and Harvick, who were teammates in the sport’s top series at Richard Childress Racing from 2006-11.

“I’m really excited about Clint just because I’ve known Clint since the first time that he sat in a car at RCR, I was there with him,” Harvick said. “So I know a lot about Clint. Clint and I are really good friends, and he is cut from that same Stewart-Haas racer mold that everybody there is pretty much cut by.”

RELATED: Bowyer eager for move to SHR

As for Stewart, Harvick said, there’s been little slowing down as he steps away from full-time racing in NASCAR.

“You know, I asked Tony, I said, ‘So what’re you going to do to relax?’ ” Harvick said. “He’s like, ‘Relax? I’ve got to go to this dirt race and that dirt race,’ and I’m like, ‘I thought the whole point of retirement was to take some time off and unwind,’ but apparently it means going to dirt races and sitting on the tractor and plowing up the dirt and making sure it’s good for the racers. Sounds like he’s going to be a track operator, a promoter, and all the things in between this winter.”