For the past few years, Denny Hamlin has consistently ranked among the highest-paid drivers in NASCAR. Last year, he ranked behind only his ex-teammate Kyle Busch. But considering Busch’s high-paying M&M’s sponsorship is no more, it can be assumed that Hamlin is currently the highest-paid driver in the sport.
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This year’s numbers, as per Sports Payouts, put his salary to be upward of $14 million with an additional $3 million in endorsements. That takes his total earnings as a driver to over $15 million per year.
But here’s the thing, Hamlin is also a team owner, which raises the question, does he make more as a team owner or does his salary exceed his profits from 23XI Racing?
The numbers behind NASCAR ownership
The first thing to point out before anything is that it takes a lot of money to start, operate, and run a competitive NASCAR Cup team on a consistent basis. According to Motor Racing Sports, it takes as much as half a million dollars per week or over $15-20 million annually to cover the expenses of a team.
Then there are the additional expenses of operations, travel, hospitality, and so many more things. In short, it takes A LOT OF money to run a competitive Cup team. But if someone is investing so much money into a business venture, there’s got to be a high payout, right?
There is.
While there are many sources of revenue for a NASCAR team, the two main sources are prize money or winnings and sponsorships. And in a way, both feed off each other. If a team wins a lot, they’ll attract better sponsors. And if there are better sponsors, there’ll be more money to invest to make the team capable of winning.
Now turning to the numbers, it is estimated that if a brand wants to sponsor a big team like Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, or even 23XI, it can cost them around $300,000 per race. But the real money is made in wins. When a team wins a race, they get a big payout, that’s obvious. But all teams who take part in a race or finish a race are paid some money. Yet once again, it is the winner who takes the big paychecks. For instance, winning the Daytona 500 can drop over $10 million in the winning team’s account.
Besides that, on average, every year the teams make $4-6 million through races.
Who makes more, Denny Hamlin the driver or Denny Hamlin the owner?
So keeping all the aforementioned information in consideration, Denny Hamlin might make over $15 million per year more or less guaranteed. But he stands a chance to make way more than that as an owner.
But as they say, the greater the reward, the greater the risk. As an owner Hamlin also stands to lose a lot of money with his race team if they don’t compete for the wins and if they aren’t getting the big brands to sponsor them and so on and so forth.
Hence, it’s safe to say, considering his contract at JGR and the performances of his team, that Denny Hamlin is probably making more on a consistent level as a driver. But as an owner, his team is yet to reach the place where they can collect the big checks.
