Ross Chastain signs multi-year sponsorship agreement with Busch Light beginning in 2024

Chastain spoke to CBS Sports as he becomes the latest in a long line of drivers to be sponsored by Busch

Busch Light announced Tuesday that the brand has signed a multi-year agreement to become the primary sponsor for Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing beginning in 2024. Chastain becomes Anheuser-Busch's new driver after the company's brands have spent the last 13 seasons sponsoring Kevin Harvick, who will retire at the end of the 2023.

The new partnership aligns Chastain with one of the biggest and most famous legacy brands among all NASCAR sponsors. Anheuser-Busch has been a major sponsor in NASCAR for over 40 years, sponsoring everything from Hall of Fame drivers like Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the annual Busch Light Clash.

For Chastain, the arrival of Busch Light as his primary sponsor-to-be does more than make him a part of the brand's legacy in NASCAR. It also marks him as a driver who is in demand among the top sponsors in all the sport after a dozen years of trying to find just enough sponsorship to put him in a competitive car.

Sponsorship -- or a lack thereof -- was a major impediment in Chastain's early career, as he drove for low-budget teams in cars that either had just enough sponsorship to cover their expenses at the racetrack or had no sponsor at all. In 2019, what was supposed to be Chastain's big break in a full-time Xfinity Series ride with Chip Ganassi Racing went away when the sponsor filed for bankruptcy and was later revealed as a Ponzi scheme, shutting the team down just before the start of the season.

Speaking to CBS Sports, Chastain reflected on reaching the point he has after years in the weeds of sponsorship searches, calling it everything he has ever worked for.

"This is exactly where I've worked to get to," Chastain told CBS Sports. "It's all of the times of just going to the racetrack with no agenda, no race car to get in. And then the times of taking rides that I was advised against. All of the ups and downs and the journey and the chase for wins and checkered flags, 13 years of doing it just from when I started in the sport, this is the exact spot I wanted to be in.

"I wanted to have a Cup team that was behind me and around me that was capable of winning, and a sponsor to go along with it."

Busch Light becomes the latest major brand to join Trackhouse Racing, continuing the team's rise as a disruptor that is now not only among the top teams in NASCAR, but also one that is attracting some of racing's biggest brands. Earlier this year, the team previously announced that Quaker State had joined the team as one of the primary sponsors of Daniel Suarez's No. 99 Chevrolet. Major brands like Worldwide Express, AdventHealth and Kubota are also among the sponsors that have joined Trackhouse.