It’s not an unknown fact that being a NASCAR driver is indeed a well-paying job. On that note, some might wonder how well-paying is it, actually? NASCAR must be paying a certain amount of money to its drivers and teams at the end of every race. But how much is it? Let’s delve deeper into how the NASCAR purse works for the teams.
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In a video recently posted by Joe Gibbs Racing, team president Dave Alpern stated that as a race team, they get paid a weekly race purse after each race. The exact amount, although unknown to the public, is then divided between the driver, the crew members, and the employees of the team. “There’s also a year-end points fund,” explained Alpern. “That’s based on where your individual team finishes in the final point standings, ranging from championships all the way down through the field.”
According to a 2014 report, the purse for a Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway shot up to $1,189,448. The winner took home $47,500, and that amount slid down to $8500 for the 40th place finisher. Besides that, the television awards were granted between the range of $10,925 to $3,330.
This means the race-winning team took home $58,425. In addition to that, the teams received a contingency award from the sponsor, depending on the decals that the cars bear. Just for the record, a company like Mechanix Wear Gloves awards $2,500 as a contingency prize. The Cup Series has almost a similar payout structure, but obviously, the amounts are higher.
According to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, last year’s race at Phoenix had a purse amount of $11,143,232, excluding the season-ending points fund bonus.
How is the NASCAR purse divided?
Winning a race is a collective effort. Hence, the prize money is divided between every member of the team. But how much does a Cup Series driver receive? Unfortunately, the exact amount that a driver takes home is still a big unknown. However, what we know is how the total purse is broken down. Alpern himself explained how it goes for the race teams.
“The race purse goes in a pool that is paid out at every racetrack based on your finishing position,” he said. “So first place makes the most all the way down to the last place. The portion that we get as a race team gets distributed; a portion to the team, a portion to the driver, and another portion that gets divided among all the employees, which is an incentive that hey, when anyone wins, we all win because we’re all one team.”
But the purse, the television award, and the contingency award are not the only payouts that a team receives on the race weekend. Three special plans amount to another lump-sum amount of money.
There is a special payment made to the championship-winning car owner, a sum given out to the top 30 entries in the owner’s championship points from the last season, and also another amount for the Victory Tour, which includes the money awarded to race-winning teams of the previous season.
