Racing in NASCAR has always been expensive. It takes a fortune and probably some more to get a single car on NASCAR’s roster. However, the money that the teams receive for winning races is no joke either. Even if the purse for this year’s Daytona exceeded $28 million, is that enough for a race team to operate seamlessly? In a Joe Gibbs Racing video, team President Dave Alpern shed light on the same.
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Every week, the teams receive a weekly purse besides a year-end bonus based on their finishing positions. This money gets divided between the driver, the team, and the crew members. “But that amount is not enough for a race team to survive,” admitted Alpern. “In fact, not even on our greatest year which we had in 2019 when we won half of all the races; we won 19 out of 38 races …while we budget for an even count on a certain amount of race winnings, it by itself is not nearly enough to run the race team.”
This is exactly where the sponsors come in. “That’s why we depend so much on our manufacturer and our sponsor partners,” added Alpern. In an older interview with CNBC, RFK Racing owner Brad Keselowski said on that very note, “You have to raise a good amount of financial [backers] and capital to race these cars. You have a lot of Fortune 500 companies to make the wheels go ’round.”
What do the sponsors look for?
It is clear how important sponsorships can be for a team and a driver. But the companies wouldn’t invest in a NASCAR team if they had nothing to gain from it, would they? Needless to say, the teams need to give back to the sponsors every time they get a car on the track. But what is it that the sponsors cherish the most?
The first part of the answer is making it to the playoffs. Whether a driver makes it in the playoff rumble goes a long way in determining the relationship between him and his team and, in turn, the relationship with his team and the sponsors. And secondly, winning a championship title. “Winning a championship title solidifies your future,” added Keselowski.
Kevin Harvick, now a retired NASCAR veteran, who has had a career behind the wheel for over two decades, somewhat attributed his long and illustrious career to his championship-winning moment in 2014. But does all of that mean that the prize money doesn’t matter at all? Certainly not. However, the money that they get out of winning races is just as much as it takes to make a car run. No wonder the sponsors play such a huge role in the arena of NASCAR.
