Budweiser’s eight-year stint as the official beer of NASCAR will come to an end next year, when Coors Light takes on the mantle for the 2008 race season.

The agreement covers five years and means that the pole-position prize in NASCAR's top series, now called the Bud Pole Award, will be renamed after Coors Light.

The deal also gives Coors Light exclusive rights to use NASCAR logos in advertising, packaging and promotion.

The Molson Coors sponsorship doesn't include the Budweiser Shootout race or beer-pouring rights at tracks, which are negotiated separately, Andy England, marketing chief for Molson Coors, said.

According to Bloomberg, Molson Coors is targeting sports to win drinkers from larger Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser which focused its NASCAR sponsorship largely on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 8 car before he recently switched teams.